In a Time of Blood and Fire
by The Silent Scream
Summary: With Buffy still weak from being poisoned, the rest of the gang has to take care of Sunnydale's regular evil. This gets difficult though when corpses start piling up - and one of them is the main suspect. Willow / OC, Rating for violence and cursing.
1. Chapter 1

Author's Note: I'm really running out of things to say in these, but it seems kinda appropiate to add them, so... Well, here we go with yet another fic in the more-or-less-series-like-thing that kinda started on accident, I hope you'll enjoy :D

Disclaimer: None of the characters used from Buffy: The Vampire Slayer are mine, just playin' with them a little. Don't sue, I have no money. ;P

* * *

In a Time of Blood and Fire

When Jane had started to go to college at UC Sunnydale, several of the locals had told her that it wasn't safe to walk around late at night, not in groups and especially not alone; and even though she had been big on going out in her hometown, she had managed to keep that advice in mind for the first three months, always making sure to be at home shortly after sundown, never staying out longer than necessary, especially when she had realized how often people died at night in this town.

All those concerns had been blown away to nothingness though when Jeff, one of the cutest guys in her anthropology class, had asked her if she wanted to go out with him Saturday night, to the only decent club in town, some joint called "The Bronze"; she had agreed without thinking twice, something she was regretting now as she was walking back to campus alone.

When she had gone to that club with Jeff, she had been sure that he'd leave with her, and that she'd maybe go back to his room with him, a decision she would've made based on his behaviour; that option had been thrown out the window though when he had met some buddies from the football team and had started drinking with them, at first still trying to make her feel like a part of the group, then giving up on it once the alcohol had kicked in – and by now, judging from the shots he had downed with the others, he probably was hugging the toilet instead of her.

"His loss", Jane muttered to herself as she walked down the road that would lead her back to the campus, glad that at least, she had made sure to memorize the route; for a moment, she considered calling a taxi, then realized that she probably didn't have enough money for that with her and sighed in dismay, looking left and right afterwards, once more remembering the gruesome tales she had heard about this town.

Grumbling to herself about stupid jocks and their need to drink, she sped her steps up a bit, looking left and right every now and then, not sure if she should be scared or relieved when every time, she found herself alone on the street.

While she kept walking at quite the fast pace, she wondered to herself if she should stop fancying football players and maybe check out the rest of the college's male population; before she could come to a conclusion though, a vaguely familiar voice called her name, startling her and making her heart skip a beat while she nearly twirled around, her relief clearly showing on her face when she saw and recognized the one who had called out to her.

"Hey", she greeted, giving her best to hide how much she'd been startled, smiling pleasantly, "nice to see you…"

The other person nodded in reply, then told her that the streets of Sunnydale were quite dangerous at night and asked if she wanted to be accompanied back to campus; immediately, Jane nodded, a grateful smile on her face now as she started walking again with the one who had called out to her, not having an idea that this was the last person who'd ever see her alive.

* * *

Just as it had been so often before, the backroom of the Magic Box was filled with the sounds of fighting, and the heavy panting of one of the participants; the fight hadn't been going on for long, but clearly, the smaller of the two combatants already was close to exhaustion, prompting the other, taller one to stop her by catching her fist in mid-air and giving her a concerned look.

"You sure you wanna go on?" she then asked, not surprised when the blonde nodded, still sounding concerned when she continued. "You're really, really sure? You're trembling, Buffy."

"Just a few more minutes", Buffy demanded as an answer, her opponent letting out a sigh before she let go of her hand and nodded, easily blocking the punch which was delivered a moment later and returning one, clearly holding back though, to the obvious dismay of the Slayer.

"Come on", she complained, "don't hold back! Let me have it!"

"No", Pat protested at once, ducking when the blonde tried a high kick aimed at her head, then almost shooting forward to catch her when the leg she had been standing on gave in beneath her and she almost fell, ending up in the demon's arms instead of on the ground at the last second.

"And this is why", Pat sighed out once she had made sure she had a good grip on Buffy, "face it, you're still weak."

Before the Slayer had the chance to reply anything, the door to the backroom opened and her best friend stepped inside; when she saw the position the demon and the blonde were in, she raised an eyebrow, then smiled slightly, sounding curious when she spoke up. "That looks like you're re-enacting Gone with the Wind. Should I be jealous?"

"Should I take that question seriously?" Pat asked as in reply, smirking as well; the giggle Willow let out was enough as an answer, making the black haired woman's smile widen while she carefully lowered Buffy on the training mat, then straightened up and opened her arms, the Slayer rolling her eyes when immediately, Willow moved into the embrace.

"One of those days, I'll get cavities from how sweet you two always are", she then accused, sighing when the redhead noticed the drained sound of her voice and gave her a worried look.

"You overdid it again, right?" she then asked accusingly, her gaze moving to her girlfriend before Buffy could reply anything though, the accusing tone remaining her voice as she spoke on. "Pat! I told you that you shouldn't let that happen again!"

"Hey, she insisted", the demon feebly protested, "and she should know her own strength!"

"I'm right here", Buffy reminded them of her presence, "and, just for your information Willow, I was doing fine until I tried that high kick."

"You have to be more careful", the witch chided in reply, sounding a bit gentler now, unaware that she almost quoted her girlfriend word for what with what she said next. "You're still weak."

"And that's what I hate", Buffy muttered, not trying to come to her feet again though, well aware of how shaky her legs still were feeling, "it's been two weeks! How much longer am I gonna feel like this?"

"Well, it was a pretty strong poison", Pat pointed out in reply, answering what clearly had been a rhetorical question, and prompting Buffy to give her an annoyed look, something she skilfully ignored though. "Remember, you're lucky that you're still alive, you only are because that assassin fucked up the dosage, underestimating your Slayer healing and everything."

"Language", Willow threw in before Buffy could say something, making the Slayer giggle while Pat just rolled her good eye; then, she helped the blonde to her feet, keeping an arm around her so she wouldn't end up falling down again, nodding when Willow asked if they'd go to the stores main room.

Quickly, the redhead opened the door for them, waiting until they had moved through it before she stepped out of the training room as well and closed the door, keeping any customers from seeing what was inside – the people of Sunnydale were good at looking the other way, but even the citizens of this lovely town would be staring and probably asking questions if they'd see a room where the walls were decorated with axes, swords and bows.

"Are you done?" Anya curiously asked from her place behind the counter, bending down after she had received a nod from Buffy and retrieving a bottle of soda from the small fridge hidden beneath the cash register, unscrewing the top and handing it to the blonde, watching how she took several large sips from it afterwards.

"Don't even think about charging her for that", Pat warned her when she saw the look on the ex-demon's face, "or I'll singe your hair."

"I wasn't thinking about that", Anya immediately lied, giving Willow a disapproving look when the witch snorted, then smiled sweetly at Buffy and asked her if she was feeling any better by now.

"Not much", the Slayer grudgingly had to admit, "I'm still all weak. Almost like a normal person."

"Should I be offended now?" Anya wanted to know, then looked at Willow, still sounding curious when she went on. "Are you offended?"

"No", the witch shrugged, "but I'm not sure if I'd count as normal."

"Will you ban me to the couch now if I say that you don't?" Pat asked, smirking when immediately, the redhead shook her head; they grinned at each other, making Buffy smile as well before she stretched and grimaced, dismayed by how weak her muscles felt after just half an hour of training.

"I hope this gets better soon", she told her friends, taking another long gulp from the bottle afterwards, then spoke on, "this is really getting annoying, and I never would have thought I'd say that, but I wanna go out again and kick some vampire ass."

"I'm taking care of that", Pat reassured her, "and you're not missing much, just the usual vamps. It's almost boring."

"You're just saying that so I won't complain any more", Buffy accused her, the demon to her dismay not replying, but just shrugging; before she could demand an answer though, Willow asked if they were needed much longer or if they could go, explaining that she had a paper to write, making the Slayer sigh again before she nodded.

"Same time, same place tomorrow?" she then asked, looking at Pat again, managing to smile a little when the demon reassured her that she'd be there; they both told her to take care, then the couple left, making their way back home while Buffy stayed in the Magic Box a bit longer, not because she loved it so much there, but due to the fact that her legs still felt weak, once more cursing the assassin who had poisoned her two weeks ago and who was responsible for the state she was in now.

* * *

"Poor Buffy", Willow sighed out the moment she had entered her apartment and had taken off her shoes and jacket, "I hope she'll regain her full strength soon…"

"She will", her girlfriend reassured her, making her way into the living room while she spoke and letting herself fall on the couch there, "she's the Slayer, they have a tendency to bounce back from such things. This time, she's just bouncing in slow motion."

"That just gave me the most hilarious mental image", Willow giggled, making the demon smirk as well; while she lit up a cigarette, the redhead made her way into the kitchen and opened the fridge there, getting two cans of cold coke out of it before she moved back into the living room and sat down next to the taller woman, earning a grateful look when she handed her the drink.

"I really should start working on that paper", Willow let the demon know after she had taken the first long sip, "but somehow, my motivation to do so didn't come back from the Magic Shop with me."

"I know how to motivate you", Pat smirked in reply, moving her free hand to run it up her girlfriend's thigh, making her blush and clear her throat, her voice trembling just the tiniest bit when she replied. "That's very… tempting, but I'm not sure it would motivate me."

"No?" the demon asked innocently, her hand travelling further upward, "I think it would." For another moment, Willow wasn't all too sure about that, and wondered if she should voice that disbelief; then, the demon leaned closer to her and started kissing her neck, her heartbeat increasing as the paper and her lack of motivation for it was wiped from her mind.


	2. Chapter 2

Afterwards, the couple took the time to rest on the couch for a while, the only sound in the room being their at first heavy, then slowly calming breathing; finally, Willow broke the silence, still sounding a bit shaken up. "Okay, I think I'm motivated now. You were right."

"I know", Pat self-confidently gave back, "and that is good because soon, I'll have to leave for patrol, then you can write that paper while I'm gone."

"Yeah", the witch agreed, getting up from the couch after making sure her legs would be steady enough and picking up her clothes, "that'll pass the time until you'll be back. Maybe I'll even get done, if it takes you long enough."

"I hope not", the demon grimaced, "I was serious when I told Buffy that the vamps were kinda lame since I took over, but let's hope I didn't jinx it now."

"As if you'd mind a proper fight", the redhead teased, putting her blouse back on and quickly buttoning it up, "someone who doesn't know you well might buy that, but I don't, Sweetie, I know you love it to kick butt."

To her amusement, Pat only let out a "Hmph" noise in reply, didn't try to deny it though; instead, she got up from the couch, not picking up her clothing though, letting the witch know that she'd go and have a shower, making the redhead nod – before she smirked, a well-known glint entering her eyes.

"Mind if I join you?" she then asked, managing to sound completely innocent; clearly surprised, Pat raised an eyebrow, her voice filled with a mixture of amusement and surprise when she replied. "Oh my, someone's insatiable today."

"I just need the motivation, and I think you're rubbing off on me", Willow shrugged, "but that doesn't answer my question."

"You know I don't", Pat immediately reassured her, only to have her good eye go wide a second later as Willow quickly unbuttoned her blouse again and let it drop to the floor, giving her a seductive smile before they made their way into the bathroom together, the demon clearly eager to give her girlfriend that extra motivation she obviously needed.

* * *

After Pat had left for patrol, Willow had made herself comfortable on the couch, wrapped up in her girlfriend's fluffy bathrobe – a piece of clothing which often led to the demon being made fun of, the witch never ceasing to be amused about the fact that her action-girl type lover who took so much joy from kicking ass also loved it to wear that fluffy thing in the privacy of their home.

Right now though, she was thankful that Pat owned such a thing, as it was big enough to let her wrap herself up in it comfortably and let her relax enough to focus on her paper properly; the laptop was on the table in front of her, a cup of tea right next to it, the liquid gone cold by now since it had been ignored for the last thirty minutes, time the redhead had spent typing away on the computer.

To her happiness, she made good progress on the paper, the words and sentences coming to her easily; every now and then, she glanced at the clock in the right bottom corner of the screen, surprised at how much time had passed between those glances – as always when she got engrossed in her studies, she didn't even notice how time flew by. Finally, after almost three hours of non-stop working, Willow decided that it was enough for now; she hadn't gotten done with the paper, as she had hoped she might, but by now, her eyes felt grainy and tired, and her concentration was beginning to fail, prompting her to make more typos than usual and to even write sentences which weren't proper English once or twice.

For a moment, she was unsure about what to do next; even though she was tired, she didn't want to go to sleep yet, eager to wait for her girlfriend to return, but reading one of her non-college related books was out of question, with the way her eyes felt – she'd probably be fast asleep before she'd even finished the first page.

Thus, she switched on the TV after a moment, then got up to get herself a cup of fresh tea, not wanting to drink the one which by now had cooled down; while she waited for the water in the electric kettle to start boiling, she checked the clock on the kitchen wall, frowning to herself when she saw how late it was by now – she knew that patrol could take longer on some nights than on others, but during the last two weeks, Pat always had been at home shortly after midnight.

Shrugging it off and telling herself that it was Sunday evening and that thus, there were more new vampires than usual, with more people to be eaten and sired on Saturday nights, Willow finished preparing her tea and made her way back into the living room; there, she made herself comfortable on the couch, then grabbed the remote control and started zapping through the channels, finally settling on a comedic movie, deciding that it wouldn't matter that she apparently had missed the first ten minutes.

The movie was funny enough to distract her from waiting for the sound of the door opening; while it ran, she made her way to the kitchen two more times, refilling her cup of tea; she didn't finish the third time though, falling asleep right after the movie had ended, slumbering soundly on the couch by the time the door opened and her girlfriend came back home at last.

* * *

The sight of Willow asleep was one of the cutest things Pat ever had seen in her long life, and thus, she smiled automatically the moment her gaze fell on the slumbering redhead; she shook her head to herself, then picked up the remote and switched off the TV before she crouched next to the couch, moving one hand to caress her girlfriend's hair tenderly, smiling again when the witch let out a content sigh in reply, then opened her eyes, the cutest yawn ever escaping her afterwards.

"You're home", she then mumbled, "what time is it?"

"Half past one", the demon gave back, "took a bit longer today, more freshly sired vamps than usual, the wonders of Saturday night. And I see you're wearing my, and I quote, embarrassingly cute and fluffy robe."

"It's very fluffy", Willow gave back, finally managing to sit up and rubbing her eyes before she smiled at the black haired woman, "and comfy."

"That's why I own it", Pat pointed out to her, then made a vague gesture at the door leading to the bedroom, asking the witch if she wanted to go to sleep in a proper bed now.

"Oh yes", Willow sighed, coming to her feet and yawning again, "I actually was planning to stay awake until you'd come back, but I worked on that papers for hours and then, I fell asleep while watching TV", she added after the yawn, smiling slightly at the demon's response. "That was kinda lucky for me then, because you're so cute when you sleep."

"So, you're saying I'm not cute when I'm awake?" Willow demanded to know, with surprising wit, considering the fact that she just had been woken up from deep slumber; Pat raised an eyebrow at her, sounding dry when she replied, her words making the witch giggle once more. "You sure you don't wanna be a lawyer? That right now was quite lawyer-y. Would surely impress the judges."

"Nope, don't wanna be a lawyer", Willow reassured her as they made their way into the bedroom together, the redhead shrugging off the fluffy robe and making herself comfortable in the bed while Pat needed a bit more time, having to unbutton her shirt, frowning when she reached the spot where the last button should have been and only encountered fabric there, along with a tiny hole which wasn't supposed to be there.

"Would you look at that", she commented, rolling her good eye when Willow reassured her that she was looking, her gaze fixed on the taller woman's flat stomach.

"That's not what I meant", Pat pointed out, "even though I'm glad to know my sex appeal still works on you, after all those years. I was talking about that." With those words, she held the shirt out to the redhead, who found it considerably hard to look at it, frowning when she couldn't find anything wrong with it.

"What _are_ you talking about?" she thus demanded to know, "it's one of your shirts. The fabric's nice. Is it new?"

"Yes it is, and it's missing a button", Pat pointed out the shirt's flaw, "right here, see?"

"Oh, it does", the witch realized, "must have happened during patrol. But no one will ever notice, it's the last button and you always stuff that part of it into your pants, anyway."

"_I_ didn't even notice", Pat had to admit, "but it's annoying nonetheless. I just bought that last week, and I'll never find that stupid button on the cemetery."

"I'll put a new one on it tomorrow", Willow promised, deciding that there had been enough talk about shirts and buttons, "now get those abs I admired before into bed so we can cuddle, I'm tired."

At once, the black haired woman showed her agreement to that order by throwing her shirt on the ground; she quickly got out of her pants and took off her eye patch and socks, then got into bed, smirking when immediately, Willow snuggled up to her.

"Sleep well", she mumbled after she had made herself comfortable, another content sigh escaping her when Pat absent-mindedly moved her hand to caress her hair again; she craned her neck for a goodnight kiss, then closed her eyes and rested her head on the taller woman's shoulder, quickly falling asleep again and slumbering soundly until the alarm clock ran early in the next morning.

* * *

In the next morning, Willow as always got up after the first ring of the alarm clock, something which partly was caused by her eagerness to get to college and partly by the fact that, if it rang any longer, it'd wake up her girlfriend and she'd be majorly grumpy, as always when she got torn out of her sleep before she'd gotten enough of it.

Carefully, so she wouldn't be the one to wake Pat up now that the threat of the alarm clock doing this had been gotten rid of, she disentangled herself from the demon's embrace, something which wasn't all too easy since the taller woman's arm laid over her waist and one of her legs over hers; finally, she managed it though, running both hands through her tousled hair while she made her way into the bathroom.

While she went through her usual morning routine there, she thought of the upcoming day at college, mentally going through the classes she'd have and which of those she usually shared with Buffy; since the Slayer still was too weakened from the poisoning she had gone through two weeks ago, Willow had agreed to take notes for her during those classes, something which had turned out to be harder than she had thought though since the notes she took just for herself were short and to the point, while Buffy needed more detailed ones to figure out what they were about.

By now though, the witch had gotten considerably better at writing things down the way her best friend needed them to be written so they'd be helpful; she reminded herself to pack the new notepad she had bought the day before, since the one she currently was using was almost full, then got done with her routine and left the bathroom after she had put on her own bathrobe, smirking slightly when her gaze fell on the bed and she saw her girlfriend still fast asleep there, the demon hugging the pillow now that Willow was gone.

"So cute", she mumbled to herself, wishing for a camera; then, she shrugged it off and moved on to the kitchen, starting the coffee machine there before she checked the fridge, after a moment settling on having some cereal, not feeling like preparing anything else. While she poured the crispy flakes into a bowl, she listened for any noise from the bedroom – every now and then, Pat actually would wake up early enough on her own to join her before she'd leave for college, amusing her girlfriend with the fact that the only conversation she was capable of before getting her first coffee and cigarette were grunts and growls.

This morning though, it seemed as if the demon wouldn't find her way out of dreamland early enough; figuring that it was just normal after patrol had taken longer than anticipated, the redhead shrugged it off and moved to the coffee machine as the coffee just had gotten done, humming softly to herself while she poured the steaming, black liquid into the cup she had readied.

Making her way back to the table, she picked up the newspaper from the previous day from the kitchen counter and sat down to read it; as always, she skipped the section about local crimes and violence, getting more than enough of that thanks to her close friendship with the Slayer and her romantic relationship with a demon; instead, she read the more harmless sections, like economy and sports, even though the latter didn't interest her much.

Still the newspaper kept her busy until she finished her breakfast and made her way to the bedroom again to change from her bathrobe into clothing more suitable for college; she managed to do so without waking her girlfriend up, by now considerably good at this, taking the time to move to the bed once more and kiss her slumbering lover's cheek, smiling when she earned a low grunt in reply.

Straightening up again, Willow looked at the sleeping demon for a moment longer, briefly pondering how happy they were making each other; then, she finally left the bedroom and, after a quick detour to the living room to grab her book bag, the apartment, unaware of the fact that, if she had read the crime section of the newspaper this time, she would have been prepared much better for what was awaiting her at the campus.


	3. Chapter 3

Just like they had done almost every day during the last week, Buffy and Pat met in the Magic Box in the early afternoon; this time, the Slayer had brought her sister along, after Dawn had pestered her that she wanted lessons again as well, pointing out that she hadn't been given any ever since the whole mess with the assassin and her poison.

At first, Buffy had been reluctant to take her along and to let her train with Pat and her, as always worried that her sister might end up getting hurt; then, Dawn had pointed out that she was much more likely to get hurt if she didn't know how to defend herself, and that she'd forget everything she had been taught by the Slayer and the demon so far if she wouldn't get some proper training again soon.

Thus, the blonde finally had given in and had agreed that Dawn could come along and train with them; and now, she was sitting at the wall of the backroom and watched her sister doing just that, exchanging blows and kicks with Pat, the demon clearly holding back, not wanting to accidentally injure her. Still Buffy winced when she watched how the taller woman easily stopped a punch Dawn had aimed at her stomach by grabbing the brunette at the wrist, then using her hold on her to spin her around and bringing her other arm up to wrap it around her throat; for a moment, Buffy considered getting up and helping her sister, despite how weak she felt after her own training, the thought forgotten though when she watched how Dawn brought her heel down hard on the demon's foot, a snort escaping her when Pat let out a surprisingly loud howl in reply.

"Ow, dammit!" she then cursed, out of reflex letting go of the teenager and glaring at her when she turned around to face her, a satisfied smirk on her face, "that is not how I taught you to get out of that grip, you know?"

"But it worked", Dawn pointed out the obvious, then charged forward again, this time managing to land a punch; snarling, the demon tried to pay her back by dropping down to one knee and swiping at her legs with a kick, having to admit that she was impressed when Dawn easily jumped over it, then brought her own foot up and around the moment she had landed again, letting out a huff when she only connected with the black haired woman's forearm instead of her head, thanks to the fast reaction of the demon.

The blink of an eye later, Pat had grabbed the teenager at the ankle and gave a hearty pull, making her end up on her back and prompting Buffy to wince again; this time, she didn't try to get up and help though, instead deciding to see what Dawn would do when the demon moved to crouch above her, closing both hands around her throat, not actually choking her though, not wanting to take the training too far.

"Gotcha", she smirked instead, her smirk vanishing a second later though when Dawn's hands came up to grab her shirt, her legs moving upwards simultaneously; and moments later, she found herself heaved over the brunette and ended up crashing to the floor flat on her back, just in time for Willow to see when she opened the door leading to the training room, the witch's eyes going wide at the sight.

"Dawn!" she then cried out, making the brunette flinch as she suddenly was sure that she'd be scolded now, her fears proven to be unjustified the moment the redhead spoke on though, "that was an amazing move, who taught you that?"

"Buffy did", Dawn proudly gave back, coming to her feet; next to her, Pat did the same, shaking her head as if to clear it, then gave the teenager an impressed look, her voice conveying that emotion as well when she spoke up. "That was quite good Dawn, I have to say I'm impressed."

"Thanks", Dawn beamed, clearly happy, "I'm glad that move worked, for a moment I was afraid it wouldn't, you're so heavy!"

"Hey!" Pat protested while Willow giggled, shrugging when the demon raised an eyebrow at her, still sounding amused when she replied. "What? That was funny."

"No it wasn't", Pat declined, shaking her head as if to empathize her own words, "and I'm not heavy, Dawn!"

"Sorry", the teenager smirked, earning a huff from the taller woman; then, Pat let the rest know that she'd go and have a smoke, taking the time for a quick kiss from her girlfriend before she left the room.

"How did it go?" Willow asked while the door fell close behind her lover, moving over to Buffy and sitting down next to her, giving the blonde a concerned look when she let out a heavy sigh in reply.

"I'm getting a bit better", she then stated, "but I'm still awfully weak, today, I could go for forty minutes instead of just thirty, but if that recovery doesn't speed up soon, I'll be out of order for another two weeks or so."

"Pat won't mind taking over patrol until you're fully fine again", the redhead tried to reassure her friend in reply, "but I understand that this ticks you off…"

"Yeah, I'm missing it to kick some butt", Buffy sighed, "and it worries me how long it takes me to recover from that, I mean, I have Slayer healing and everything, but I'm still so awfully weak."

"Just shows how dangerous that poison was", Willow grimaced, "if she hadn't underestimated your Slayer strength and would have made the dose just a little bit higher…"

"Then I would be dead by now", Buffy finished for her, grimacing as well at that unpleasant thought. "I guess I can be glad that she never tried to poison a Slayer before…"

"And she'll never try that, again", Dawn added, giving the witch a look which was filled with pride, "Willow took care of that."

"I did", the redhead agreed, even though she didn't feel as proud of this as Dawn clearly did; after all, she had accomplished this by tapping into her dark side once more, and she was well aware of how bad this could have ended.

"I'm glad to hear you're doing a bit better", she thus changed the topic, looking at the Slayer again, "but now I better go and check on my girlfriend, before she feels neglected out there."

"You do that", Buffy smiled, "I'll just wait a few more minutes and then, I'll get a drink from that fridge Anya has out in the main room."

Nodding, Willow gave her another calming smile, then touched her shoulder briefly and reassuringly before she came to her feet; Buffy smiled back at her, leaning her head against the wall afterwards and looking up at the ceiling as she pondered the effects the poisoning still had on her and how much longer it would take until she'd be back to her full strength.

* * *

When Willow stepped out of the Magic Box and on the sidewalk, Pat just took the last drag of her cigarette, throwing it to the ground and stepping on it while she gave her girlfriend a warm smile, obviously glad that she had decided to join her out here.

"I'm late", Willow stated the obvious, gesturing at the cigarette butt on the sidewalk, "unless you wanna smoke another one right away."

"Depends", the demon gave back, "are we done here?" To her surprise, Willow didn't reply immediately, but looked away instead, her expression darkening; before she could ask what was going on though, the redhead glanced at her again, her voice soft when she replied. "I'm not sure, to be honest. Today at college…"

She trailed off, trying to find the right words; now clearly worried, Pat took a step closer to her and placed one hand on her shoulder, giving her a look that clearly showed her concern while she asked what had happened at college, the witch letting out a sigh before she replied. "Remember this girl I told you about? The one I was doing a psychology assignment with? She came to our place once…"

"Yeah", Pat confirmed, wondering where this was leading, "Janet, right?"

"Jane", Willow corrected, a sigh escaping her before she spoke on, her voice low and worried. "Well… She wasn't at college today, and she hasn't called in sick, either, I checked with the office… I wouldn't be so worried if this was any other town, but…"

"But this is Sunnydale, so you think something happened to her", Pat finished for her, making the witch nod miserably.

"It'd be so sad if something happened to her", she then mumbled, "she's such a nice girl…"

"Maybe she just forgot to call in sick, or did it after you checked with the office", Pat tried to cheer her up, even though she knew that the option of something having happened to Jane was much more likely in this peculiar town, "you should ask again tomorrow."

"I will", Willow nodded, "so you think I should wait another day before bringing it up?"

"Yeah", the demon gave back, "unless you really think that something happened to her, and that it wasn't a vampire."

"Well, I have no proof that anything happened to her", the redhead had to admit, "so, yeah, you're right, I should wait… I guess we are done here then."

"Let's say goodbye then and go back home", Pat suggested, "I wanna get some calm time there before I go out for patrol."

Nodding, Willow smiled up at her, then grabbed her jacket and pulled her down for a kiss; afterwards, they made their way back into the Magic Box to tell the others they were going back home, heading for their apartment a few minutes later.

* * *

When the couple returned to their home, the first thing Willow noticed was the blinking light on the answering machine, informing her that a message had been left; curiously, she pushed the button which would play it, smiling to herself when Giles' voice came out of the speaker – even though they all had cell phones, he still preferred to call the landline phones of the gang, this being one of the reasons why they had gotten the answering machine, not wanting to end up scolded by the Watcher every time he called them, couldn't reach them and didn't have the possibility to leave a message.

"Hello, it's me", the Brit's voice informed her through the speakers, "I assume you are at college right now, so call me as soon as you get home. Thank you."

The message ended with a click, and curiously, Willow picked up the phone to do what Giles had asked her to; usually, he at least left some information what this was about, but this time, he hadn't even bothered to do that, making her wonder what this was about.

"He wasn't all too talkative this time, was he", Pat commented next to her, raising an eyebrow while Willow nodded, already dialling the Watcher's phone number; while she waited for him to take the call, she moved a bit closer to her girlfriend, smiling when immediately, the demon put an arm around her waist and pulled her even closer.

Even before the whole situation with the assassin who had poisoned Buffy, the couple had been described as quite touchy-feely by their friends; ever since Willow had been convinced though for a few horrible hours that her girlfriend had died, she was even keener on close bodily contact, the demon gladly providing it whenever it was desired.

"Hello?" Giles' voice echoed through the line after the first ring, making the redhead wonder if he had been sitting next to his phone and waiting for her call; shrugging it off, she returned the greeting, practically able to hear the smile on his face when he told her that he was glad she called.

"Well, you left a message", Willow reminded him, "but it wasn't very enlightening. What's going on?"

"Did you read the paper today?" Giles answered her question by asking one himself, a habit the redhead found highly annoying; deciding not to call him out on it though, she simply answered, telling him that she had, but that she had skipped several sections.

"Well, I skipped nothing", Giles let her know, "and I have reason to believe that there is a new threat in town."

"What happened?" the witch wanted to know, the slightly concerned tone in her voice prompting Pat to lean closer to the phone so she could hear the Watcher's reply, his voice serious when he answered the question.

"A corpse was found close to the campus by a group of students on Sunday morning", he informed her, "not something unusual to happen in this town, I know, but… the poor woman has been burned to death."

"Burned", Willow echoed, exchanging a startled look with her girlfriend, "the poor girl…"

"Indeed", Giles agreed, "and you'll understand that I'm worried that this might not be the last victim of whoever is responsible for this. This is the reason for my call, I'd like you to check out the spot where the girl was found, see if you can find anything… I would ask Buffy, but you know she's still weak, so…"

"I'll do it, right now", Willow reassured him, "and I'll call you once we're back home, okay?"

"Very good", Giles agreed, "and while you're gone, I'll try to find out what might be responsible for this."

"You do that", the witch agreed, even though she wasn't sure how Giles wanted to find anything out if they didn't have any proper clues yet; he thanked her once more for her help, then gave her the exact spot where the corpse had been found before he told her to be careful, then said goodbye and hung up, prompting Willow to do the same before she looked up at her girlfriend.

"You heard him?" she demanded to know, not surprised when the demon nodded; she let out a small sigh, then gave her girlfriend a rueful smile, gesturing at the living room couch as she spoke up. "Seems as if I'm not gonna get that calm time before patrol… You wanna go right now?"

"Yes", the witch confirmed, "but it's okay if you want to stay here, I'll just look around a bit anyway, I can do that on my own if you wanna get some rest."

"Nah", Pat immediately shook her head, "of course I'll come with you, it's no problem, really. I don't like the thought of you going to a place where such a horrid thing happened alone, who knows what creeps are hanging out there."

"Okay", Willow agreed, glad that her girlfriend had insisted on coming along; she had meant it when she had said that she'd be fine going alone, but still she preferred it to have Pat with her when she'd go to check out that crime scene.

"Let's go then", she thus added, "Giles will be sitting next to his phone from now on and wait for me to call again, so we shouldn't let him wait too long."

"Yup", Pat was the one to agree this time; the couple shared another quick kiss, then made their way back to the anteroom to put their shoes and jackets back on, leaving the apartment again right afterwards and heading for the place where the woman had been killed.


	4. Chapter 4

Author's Note: Since it's concert day again tomorrow, an early update :) Enjoy!

* * *

As expected, the spot where the corpse had been found was a narrow side alley, the pedestrians kept from going there with bright yellow police tape; a chalk outline on the ground showed the position the woman had been in when she had been found, the curled up way she had been lying making it quite clear that she had been in great pain when she had died.

"The poor woman", Willow mumbled, looking left and right to make sure nobody was watching before she ducked beneath the tape; Pat did the same, and together, they moved closer to the chalk outline, not sure what they were looking for, the demon saying out loud what the witch had been pondering as well. "I wonder if the police took anything away from here, they might have ended up taking something important for us."

"Indeed", the redhead grimaced, looking around, "I'll try to hack into the police database and see if I can find anything on this, usually, they have lists with what they collected from crime scenes."

"You do that", Pat agreed, looking at the ground intently; she moved a few steps past the chalk outline, then stopped at a large dumpster and crouched down next to it, frowning as she studied the objects that had caught her attention.

"Hey, look", she called out to her girlfriend, making her move over to her side, "I think they missed something." With those words, she gestured at a smile pile of cigarette butts, looking too neat to just have accumulated there accidentally; frowning, Willow crouched down as well, studying the cigarette butts for a few moments before she looked at her girlfriend again, sounding curious when she replied. "This looks as if someone waited here for her, right?"

"Yes", the demon immediately agreed, "so she wasn't killed randomly, she was singled out."

"Maybe", Willow gave back, straightening up again, "or maybe whoever did this was just waiting for the right person, it's hard to tell from that chalk outline, but I don't think that woman was very big or strong."

"Good point", Pat had to admit, "but not as good as it could have been, because if it was the way you said, it'll be harder to figure out who did this."

"I know", Willow sighed, "but first, we'll have to figure out who she was, maybe that will help… If she had enemies or something…"

"Would've been quite the screwed up person, burning her to death", Pat muttered, looking at the chalk outline again, then straightening up as well and walking over to it, studying the concrete around it.

"I don't think this was done with mundane means", she then let the witch know, turning to look at her, "there are no stains around here which would suggest that she's been doused in gasoline before she was burned, so…"

"So you think it was magic?" Willow demanded to know, grimacing; the thought of fighting a being skilled enough with magic to burn people to death wasn't very appealing to her, but on the other hand, possibly battling a human who'd be deranged enough to pour gasoline over a girl and set her on fire wasn't nice, either.

"Magic, or a demon", Pat sighed, looking at the chalk outline once more, "which is a thought I don't like at all. It's no fun to go up against someone who's just as immune to fire as I am."

"And if it's a witch or a warlock, he's very powerful", Willow helped to make her feel even unhappier about the whole situation; she let out a dismayed grunt, then glanced around once more before she focused on her girlfriend again. "Want to look around once more? I don't think there's anything else interesting here."

"Me neither", the witch agreed, glancing at the chalk outline once more, "we better go back home so I can call Giles and then look into the police database. I wonder if they already know who she was…"

"You think it's Jane, right", Pat stated matter-of-factly, surprising the redhead with her insight; she was honest enough to nod, the miserable look which appeared on her face prompting the demon to put an arm around her and pull her closer again.

"You don't know that yet", she tried to calm the witch down, not sure what else she could say; forcing herself to smile, Willow nodded, throwing one last glance at the chalk outline before she finally started to walk back to the main street, once more looking around to make sure no one was watching before she ducked beneath the crime scene tape, Pat doing the same a moment later, taking her hand and giving it a reassuring squeeze as they started to walk back home, the redhead despite her girlfriend's quiet reassurance not able to shake off the thought that the so far unknown victim had been the girl she'd been working with not all too long ago.

* * *

Once they had arrived at the apartment, Willow made her way to the phone the moment after she had taken off her shoes and jacket; again, Giles took the call after the first ring, listening intently to what she had to say, agreeing that hacking into the police database would be a good idea.

"Call me again once you got done there", he then almost ordered, "and maybe you should also look for similar cases, it's quite possible that this wasn't the first victim."

"Will do", Willow promised, then asked if he had found out anything; it didn't surprise her when he told her he hadn't, after all, they hadn't gathered much information so far, and his research had basically been a short into the dark.

"I'll get to work right now", she reassured him, promising him once more that she'd call him the moment she'd get done; then, she said goodbye and hung up, briefly wondering where her girlfriend had gone before the sounds coming from the kitchen gave her the answer.

A minute later, Pat joined her in the living room, carrying two cans of cooled coke; the witch gave her a grateful glance while she took the one the taller woman held out to her, opening it and taking a long sip from it before she sat down on the couch and pulled her laptop closer, Pat sitting down next to her while she started it up.

"I can't help you with that, right?" she demanded to know, even though she already knew the answer, and thus wasn't really surprised or disappointed when Willow shook her head, then smiled at her, a hint of mischief in her voice when she replied. "Well, you can cuddle with me and thus, give me the motivation I need to hack into that database. I think they increased their protection since I hacked into it the last time, at least they are learning when it comes to that."

"Yeah, but they're useless about everything else", Pat muttered, making the redhead giggle and nod; the couple smiled at each other, then the demon moved closer to her girlfriend, making it possible for her to snuggle up to her, making herself comfortable after she had put the laptop on her upper legs for easier access.

"Alright", she mumbled, more to herself than to her partner, her fingers moving over the keyboard with a speed that stunned Pat every time she had the chance to witness it, "now let's see how long it'll take me to get in there."

Curiously, the demon watched how she typed away on the laptop, not able to make much of what the screen was showing; clearly, Willow was doing quite well though, the small smile that started to form on her face being an obvious sign for her progress.

"They did increase their security", she let her girlfriend know after just typing and clicking away in silence for a while, "but it didn't do them much good, I'm in. Now I just have to find the right file…"

"You're awesome", Pat declared in reply, making her giggle; she took the time for a quick kiss, then focused on the screen again, quickly scrolling through the list of files her successful hacking had made available to her.

"I wish they'd give their files more sensible names", she muttered to herself after opening three wrong ones, then finally found the one she had been looking for after two more false tries; the moment she started reading, her face fell, the file confirming what she already had been fearing.

"They already identified her", she let Pat know, the sound of her voice immediately making the demon look at her in concern, "it's Jane…"

"Oh jeez", the black haired woman gave back, "I'm sorry, Sweetie… Are you sure you should go on looking at this then?"

"I have to", Willow replied at once, a strange mixture of sadness and determination in her voice, "I owe it to her…"

With those words, she focused on the file again, grimacing when she read about the fact that Jane had been identified with the aid of her dental records, knowing very well what that meant; next to her, Pat swallowed with an audible click, signalling that she just had seen the same thing and had come to the same conclusion.

"The poor girl", the demon muttered, showing surprising sympathy for someone she only had met once, "no one should die like that…"

"You never killed anyone that way?" Willow wanted to know in reply, not sure if she should be surprised or glad when immediately, the taller woman shook her head, still sounding bothered when she replied. "No, well, at least not humans, I won't count in the demons and vampires I killed that way since I started dating you. But never a human, you know, the point of being an assassin is to kill the victim quick and killing them that way… Well, it's not quick."

"Poor Jane", Willow sighed as an answer, then focused on the file once more; nodding her agreement, the demon fell silent as she watched her work, her mind running well as she tried to figure out how they could find the one responsible for this – and how hard it might be to stop the culprit, if he was just as immune to fire as she was.

* * *

After Willow had gotten all the information possible from the file, she called Giles once more, telling him what she had found; it wasn't much, since the stuff the police had taken from the crime scene hadn't been all too unusual, consisting of pieces of clothing and other, uninteresting stuff they had found scattered around the burnt corpse.

"Did you find anything?" she demanded to know after she had given the Watcher the few small pieces of information; to her dismay, he told her that he hadn't and that he needed more information, then asked Willow to put Pat on the phone, the demon accepting the receiver when the witch held it out to her.

"Yup, what?" she asked the moment she had held it to her ear, not all too polite, the Watcher not minding much though.

"I'm afraid this won't be the last victim", he repeated the concern he had voiced earlier, "so I'd like you to focus on the area where the poor girl was killed during tonight's patrol. Can you do that?"

"Sure", Pat shrugged, "if you think whoever did this will go back there…"

"It's worth a try", Giles sighed, having to admit that he had no other leads and hating it, "demons who act like this often stick close to one… hunting ground."

"Good to know", the demon mumbled, then promised Giles that she'd go there later that night; clearly glad about this, the Watcher thanked her, then told her to be careful, well aware of the culprit's fiery nature and about the fact how this immunity might make fighting it much harder for Pat.

"I'll take care", the demon reassured him reply, then asked if he wanted to talk to Willow again, smirking when he said there was no need to and added a goodbye, prompting her to say the same before she hung up and looked at her girlfriend.

"I'll hang around close to that spot where Jane was killed tonight", she informed the witch, the curious look which had been on her face being enough to make her answer the unspoken question, the redhead's expression immediately changing to concern when she heard those words.

"Are you sure it's wise to do that alone?" she then demanded to know, frowning, "if this demon or whatever it is really fights with fire, you might have a hard time killing it. And if it's a witch or a warlock…"

"I'll be fine", Pat reassured her, taking her hand and giving it a tender squeeze, "I'm not even sure that whoever did this will show up there again, Giles thinks so, but, well…"

"I don't like the thought of you doing that alone", Willow sighed out in reply, "what if… something happens to you?"

"I'll be fine", the demon tried to reassure her once more, "really… I know what I'm doing, Sweetie."

"I know", Willow mumbled, closing the laptop and putting it on the table so she could get into a more comfortable position in her girlfriend's arms, "I'm just worried… I know it's silly, but after what that assassin did to you two weeks ago, and I thought you're dead…"

"I know what you mean", Pat let her know, "but I promise you, I'll be fine. In fact, it'll be easier for me to be fine if I go there alone than if you're going with me, because if you're there as well and that thing does come back to burn some more people, I'll have to worry about your safety, I'll be distracted and thus, there'll be a higher chance I might get hurt."

"Good point", Willow had to admit, another sigh escaping her afterwards before she finally gave in, looking at her girlfriend pleadingly as she spoke on. "But promise you'll be really, really careful, and bring your cell phone! If anything happens, call me, alright? And if you do run into that thing and it turns out to be stronger than you think, don't be reckless, run away!"

"You know I hate running away", Pat grimaced, the stern look she received in reply making it her turn to sigh – before she nodded grudgingly, prompting Willow to give her a happy smile.

"Alright", she then stated, "now I feel a bit better about you going there alone. Now, you should get that calm time you mentioned before you go out, so you'll be fit and rested and ready to kick some ass."

"Language", the demon smirked in reply, relieved when it worked just the way she had intended it to – after Willow just gaped at her for a few seconds, she started giggling, relaxing into her girlfriend's embrace afterwards and making herself comfortable, her worries about Pat going out to possibly face whatever was responsible for Jane's death at least for the moment subdued.


	5. Chapter 5

A few hours later, Pat had gone out for patrol while Willow once more had opened up her laptop and continued working on her paper; now that she was alone in the apartment, her worries surfaced again though, making it hard for her to focus on the paper, the witch catching herself several times with her fingers just resting on the keyboard, looking right through the screen – and into the past, to the horrible hours when she had been so sure that her girlfriend was dead.

She couldn't stop the cold shiver that ran down her back when she remembered once more how Pat had went down without a sound, the blink of an eye after the assassin who had been after Buffy had snapped her fingers; she had relived that moment again and again in her nightmares, always with an outcome much worse than what really had happened, several times even managing to wake up her girlfriend with her moans and whimpers. Dully, she wondered to herself how much longer she'd be dreaming about that moment, and about what had followed it; in her dreams though, the demon crumbled to dust when they met on the sidewalk in the pouring rain, turning out to be the figment of her imagination she had feared she would be, instead of the perfectly fine woman she still was with.

Giving her best to push those thoughts out of her mind, Willow told herself that there was no need to think of that horrible time again; after all, Pat was alive and well, and just had gone out for patrol and would be back soon, just as well as she had been when she had left.

"At least I hope so", the witch mumbled to herself, not even realizing that she had said that out loud; it took her quite the bit of willpower, but finally, she managed to focus on her paper again, her fingers moving over the keys slowly at first, then faster as the words started coming to her.

Just like during the previous evening, she soon didn't notice anymore how time passed once she had gotten fully into the work; by the time she finally leaned back for a short break and her gaze fell on the clock, she frowned to herself when she saw how late it had gotten, worry instantly filling her heart again as her thoughts returned to Pat and what she might be doing right now – or whom she might be fighting – before she pushed them aside, telling herself that surely, the demon would be fine.

Eager to distract herself from those worries, Willow focused on the paper again, reading through what she had written and correcting several typos she found; once she had gotten done with that, she decided that she'd done enough work for the day, quickly saving her changes, then opening one of her favourite internet sites, not feeling like going to sleep yet.

She spent almost another full hour browsing the site, checking new entries in the forum and replying to some of them; then, her tiredness finally became too great to ignore, and she shut down the laptop, carefully placing it on the table before she got up from the couch and made her way into the bedroom, yawning to herself while she changed into her pyjama.

Before she laid down, she checked the clock again, frowning to herself when she saw how late it was; then, she once more pushed her worries aside and got into bed, snuggling into the covers – which were a poor substitute for her girlfriend – and making herself comfortable, drifting off into sleep a few minutes later.

* * *

She didn't know how long she had been asleep when the noise her girlfriend made as she came finally came home woke her up again; blinking sleepily, she sat up on the bed, listening to Pat taking off her boots in the anteroom, her footsteps then approaching the bedroom, the door opening a few moments later.

Clearly not aware of the fact that her girlfriend was awake, and now at least trying to be quiet, the demon tried to sneak to the bathroom as silently as possible; the moment she approached the bed on her way to the bathroom door, Willow frowned to herself as a smell she quickly identified as smoke hit her nostrils, making her wonder if Pat indeed had encountered the one who had killed poor Jane.

"Hey", she spoke up, holding back the urge to giggle when the taller woman visibly jumped, startled; turning around, she looked at the bed, the eyes of the redhead by now adjusted enough to the darkness to let her see how she raised an eyebrow.

"I thought you're asleep", she stated after a moment of silence, taking a step closer to the bed now and giving Willow another chance to smell the smoky odour she had brought in with herself; smiling, the witch shrugged, feeling surprisingly awake now that her girlfriend was back and hopefully fine. "I was until you came home and thumped all over the place when you took off your boots. Are you okay?"

"Yeah I'm fine", Pat reassured her at once, "just wanted to wash down quickly, I'm afraid I'm all stinky."

"Yes you are", Willow confirmed, "did you run into that other flamey guy?"

"No", the demon sighed, "unfortunately not. I did run into some other big nasty and had to burn him quite badly before he finally bit the dust, so hence the bad smell I'm bringing with me."

"You better go and wash then", the redhead helpfully advised, making the demon bite her tongue as she held back a snarky remark about how this was what she had been planning to do anyway; she just nodded, not even taking the time for a kiss, but immediately making her way into the bathroom, closing the door behind herself so the noise of the shower wouldn't be too loud.

Even though she only washed down quickly, just to get the smell out of her hair, Willow was fast asleep again by the time she got out of the bathroom; smiling to herself, the demon watched her slumber for a while, then moved to the window and glanced outside into the night, watching the quiet streets for a while before she finally got into bed and quickly fell asleep, as well.

* * *

In the next morning at campus, Willow went to the cafeteria right after arriving at the college, eager to get some coffee; even though she had fallen asleep again quickly after Pat had come back home, and had slumbered peacefully for the rest of the night, she still felt tired, something she blamed on the fact that she had stayed awake longer than usual, spending so much time in front of her laptop.

Fighting down the urge to yawn, she entered the cafeteria and moved straight to the counter, grimacing when she saw the rather long line there; obviously, she wasn't the only one in need for coffee, hoping that at least, the ones in front of her would get done quickly and that no one would have any stupid, special wishes. Luckily, that hope was fulfilled, the line moving along quite fast; it only took a few minutes until she stood in front of the cafeteria employee and told him her order, giving him a smile and thanking him when he handed a paper cup of steaming hot coffee to her half a minute later.

Moving away from the counter again, she took a careful sip of the black liquid, briefly closing her eyes as she felt warmth spread within her; then, she sped up her steps and moved to the lecture hall where her first class would be held, arriving there a good ten minutes before the lesson would start. As always, the other students who were already there were using those minutes to chat among each other; it took only a few seconds until the girl sitting next to her tapped her shoulder, keeping her voice low just like the others when she spoke up. "Hey, have you heard about Jane yet? Isn't it horrible?"

"Yes", Willow agreed at once, her heart once more flooded with sympathy as she thought of her study partner and the gruesome death she had been subjected to, "poor her, it's awful…"

"And there was another one", the other girl now helpfully informed her, making her eyes go wide as she wondered why no one had informed her about this yet – after what he had said about this mysterious new foe, she would've thought that at least Giles would keep an eye open for more such deaths.

"There is?" she thus asked, her stomach knotting up when the girl nodded, her voice almost going down to a whisper as she replied. "Yes, close to the cemetery, you know that one which is so awfully close to the old High School? A guy, burned to death, just like poor Jane, it was in the paper…"

"Poor guy", Willow gave back, the first thing which came to her mind and probably an appropriate answer as well; she cleared her throat, trying to clear her head as well, her voice surprisingly steady when she spoke on. "Do they know who he was yet?"

"No", the other student shook her head, to the witch's dismay, "they're working on it…"

"Oh, okay", the redhead mumbled, not all too smart; the girl just nodded, then fell silent as the door opened and the teacher entered, greeting the students with his usual lack of enthusiasm, making several of them jump when he let his stack of books fall on the table in front of him.

Unlike most other professors would have, this one didn't bother to even mention Jane and her untimely death; instead, he started the lecture right away, and even though she tried hard to concentrate, Willow found herself unable to focus on his words, her mind running wild as she pondered what she just had learned.

The thought that there had been a second victim so shortly after the first was unsettling, as it showed that Giles had been right and that Jane had only be the first one to be killed in such a horrendous way; it also made her aware of how fast they had to be to figure out who was responsible for this, the thought of how many more people might die in case this creature would keep up the habit of killing every night making her blood run cold.

Even though she wanted nothing more than just jump up, rush outside and call at first Giles, then her girlfriend, she somehow managed to stay in her seat until the lecture was over; the moment the professor had dismissed them though, she almost jumped up and rushed outside, not even noticing the surprised glance the girl who had told her about the latest victim gave her.

As fast as she could without actually running, she made her way to one of the few quieter corners of the campus, then quickly found her cell phone and called Giles; to her relief, he took the call right after the second ring, sounding worried the moment she had introduced herself, well aware of the fact that she was at college and that she usually only called from there when something had happened.

"There's been another victim", she let him know without beating around the bush for long, keeping her voice low in case anyone would walk by, "close to the cemetery, the one close to the High School… and I have the feeling that it's not over yet… or that it will be anytime soon if we don't figure out how to stop it."

"I'm afraid you're correct about that", Giles sighed out, not surprising her when he asked her if she'd go and check out the crime scene again, something she already had been anticipating.

"Yes", she thus immediately gave back, "I'll call Pat and ask her to come with me, just in case…"

"Good idea", the Watcher agreed, "and let me know if you find anything. I'll keep an eye out for more news about this, maybe we can figure out a pattern about how the victims were chosen…"

"You do that", Willow agreed, even though she thought it wouldn't do much good – so far, the demons they had encountered aside from battles against the various Big Bads had always killed randomly, not caring whom they were finishing off, but just eager on spreading pain and mayhem, as it was their nature.

Before he ended the call, Giles took the time to tell her to take care; she reassured him that she would, then quickly hung up and pushed the speed-dial button for her girlfriend's phone, hoping that the call wouldn't wake the demon up, since then, Pat wouldn't exactly be capable of communication. To her relief, the black haired woman sounded quite awake when she took the call, and mildly curious – after all, Willow hardly ever called her during college hours, either, and the fact that she did now showed that it was some kind of emergency.

"I just heard that there's been a second victim of the new flamey guy", the redhead let he girlfriend now after a short greeting had been exchanged, "so I called Giles first and he wants me to check out the crime scene again. I'm gonna skip class and go there now, I was wondering if you'd come along…"

"Sure", the demon agreed at once, "where did it happen?"

"Close to the cemetery, the one close to the old High School", Willow informed her, glad that she had agreed, even though she hadn't expected anything else, "I'll meet you there in twenty minutes?"

"Fine with me", Pat agreed, then asked if she should bring anything along; after a moment of thinking about it, Willow told her that it wasn't necessary, then said goodbye and hung up, leaving the campus and heading for the cemetery a minute later.


	6. Chapter 6

When she arrived there, Pat was already waiting for her, standing at the cemetery gate and, as always when waiting for something or someone, smoking a cigarette; at the sight of the witch approaching, she immediately started to smile, taking one last drag from the cigarette before she threw it on the ground and stepped on it to put it out, then bent down to kiss her girlfriend hello.

"I already found the crime scene", she let her know after the short, but tender kiss, "it wasn't hard to miss, what with the bright yellow tape again."

"Let's go there then", Willow decided at once, not wanting to waste any time, "and see if we can find anything… I hope we'll be luckier than last time."

"It wasn't a dingy side alley this time", Pat informed her while she started walking, her girlfriend right beside her, "but right on the sidewalk, so I figure it happened fast or the risk to be caught would have been too big. Plus, it seems as if our new buddy also has the hobby of burning down buildings, after your call, I checked the newspaper and one was burnt down last night, not far from here, a family house."

"Oh my God", Willow breathed, shocked, "did anyone else…?"

"Oh, no no", the demon hurried to reassure her, "the family's on vacation. They'll be thrilled to come home and find said home gone…"

"How awful", Willow grimaced, "just imagine that happening to us, or to Buffy… But at least they're still alive."

"I wonder if the culprit had a grudge against them", Pat thought out loud in reply, not commenting on how awful that had to be, "or if he just burned that house down randomly."

"Well", the redhead gave back, briefly distracted by the yellow crime scene tape appearing up in the distance, wrapped clumsily around the cemetery's high metal fence and a nearby lamppost to secure the area where the corpse had been found, "I thought about this before I came here, actually, after I spoke to Giles… He'll try to figure out if the victims had something in common, but I don't think they did, most demons kill randomly, just for the fun of it."

"Good point", Pat agreed, "and I think you're right, he does choose them randomly. He didn't stick to the MO we've seen in Jane's case for this unlucky fella."

"Now you sounded like some character from CSI", Willow giggled, growing serious again though as they finally reached the crime scene, the chalk outline on the ground quite similar to the one which had been made of Jane; clearly, the man had been taller than the small and thin first victim, but he had died in almost exactly the same position, curled up on the ground, making it clear that his death had been just as agonizing as Jane's.

"No cigarette butts this time", Pat observed, her gaze travelling over the concrete ground, "so he probably didn't wait here for a victim to walk by… Maybe he was just on the way to another hiding place or something and ran into that guy and figured hey, why not him."

"Could be", Willow agreed, ducking down and moving beneath the tape after a quick look that no one was around who might see them; while she studied the are around the chalk outline, Pat moved a few steps away, looking for any clues the police might have missed.

For a moment, the witch turned her head to watch her, smiling slightly to herself, then focused on the chalk outline again; moments later, she frowned as a small, circular object caught her eye, making her wonder how the police could have missed this while she bent down to pick it up, a queasy feeling spreading in her stomach when she recognized it as a button.

Telling herself that this was just a stupid coincidence, she quickly let the button vanish in her pocket, just in time before Pat turned around to look at her and ask her if she had found anything; not sure why, she shook her head, forcing herself to smile when Pat sighed and told her she hadn't found anything either.

"Giles won't be happy to hear this", the demon added, making Willow nod; she threw one last look at the chalk outline, then let her girlfriend know that she'd check the police file on the poor guy again before they both left the crime scene and headed back home, the redhead unable to stop herself thinking about the button she had found, no matter how often she tried to tell herself that it didn't mean anything.

* * *

Once they had arrived at their apartment, Pat made her way into the kitchen to prepare some snacks; and even though she had tried to convince herself that it meant nothing, Willow couldn't stop herself from making her way into the bedroom and getting the shirt which was missing a button from the cupboard, her heartbeat doubling when she held the button she had found against the ones which were still attached to the fabric and saw that they were identical.

"This doesn't mean anything", she whispered to herself, unable to take her eyes away from the small object in her hand; momentarily, she felt like fainting, then squeezed her eyes shut and took a few deep breaths, feeling a bit calmer afterwards, telling herself again that surely, this meant nothing – that there had to be hundreds of stores selling that kind of shirt all over the US, and since the button itself wasn't all too special either, the witch figured that it probably was seen on millions of pieces of clothing every single day.

She almost had managed to convince herself that this nothing more than a coincidence, an unpleasant one, but a coincidence nonetheless; then, she remembered the small pile of cigarette butts they had found at the first crime scene and the fact that her girlfriend had carried quite the smoky odour the previous night – the same night during which a house had been burned down, according to said girlfriend.

"Now you're driving yourself crazy", she mumbled to herself, shaking her head as if to clear it; then, she let the button vanish into her pocket again and moved to put the shirt back into the cupboard, ending up being too slow this time though since Pat walked in just after she had opened the cupboard door.

"Oh, you gonna put on a new button?" the demon asked, sounding a bit surprised, her next words explaining that emotion. "I just made some sandwiches, as I thought you'd noticed."

"I did", Willow quickly reassured her, giving her best to hide the dark thoughts she'd had a minute ago from her significant other, and apparently succeeding since the demon obviously didn't notice anything, "I just thought I'd put it out so I won't forget, you know, I already forgot yesterday, so…"

"Well, it can wait until we ate", Pat smiled in reply, making the witch give her a more honest smile in return before she nodded and hung the shirt on the cupboard door's handle, making her way into the living room with the demon afterwards, where a plate with sandwiches was waiting.

At the sight of them, her stomach rumbled audibly, reminding her of the fact that she hadn't had much for breakfast and that she had left the campus before lunch; next to her, Pat just smirked knowingly, the sight once more helping to calm Willow down about her hidden worries – surely this woman, who was so kind and caring with her, wouldn't go out at night to kill innocent, random people.

_Especially not now, after she spent years fighting the good fight, _the redhead mentally added while she sat down and took one of the sandwiches from the plate, taking a huge bite from it afterwards, _she's not evil, she's on our side… _

"You alright?" Pat now distracted her from her thoughts, making her look at the taller woman, the questioning expression on her face prompting the demon to go on. "You just got that look on your face. The one you always get when you ponder something which is bothering you."

"I'm fine", Willow reassured her after a moment of hesitation, touched by how well her girlfriend knew her by now, "just thinking about that new baddie, whoever he is… We have to stop him quickly, or much more people will die, if he keeps up that rhythm of one victim per night…"

"And he probably will", Pat grimaced, helping herself to a sandwich as well and munching part of it down before she continued. "That kind of demon doesn't just stop some day or gets bored. Either he enjoys killing people that way or he feeds on something they give off when they die."

"Well, at least he doesn't feed on them", Willow sighed, then looked at her sandwich with dismay, suddenly not hungry anymore, but forcing herself to finish it anyway, knowing she had to eat, "at least it didn't say anything about that in the police file…"

"Would they note that down?" Pat wanted to know in reply, the redhead having to admit what she was making a good point with what she said next. "After all, they often label cases of vampire groups as attacks by gangs on PCP."

"Good point", Willow agreed, "but I think they'd add something like that… There weren't any photos, thankfully, but usually, they also write down the neck trauma after those vampire attacks you mentioned. One could think that PCP makes people hungry for necks."

"Usually, just weed gives you the munchies", Pat smirked in reply, making the witch giggle – before she threw her girlfriend a mock accusatory look, even managing to sound indignant when she replied. "You don't wanna imply that you've smoked weed before, right?"

"Nope, never", Pat reassured her at once, finishing her sandwich and grabbing another one from the plate afterwards, then speaking on, making the redhead giggle once more. "If I wanna experience munchies, I just demon out. Has the same effect and it's cheaper."

"Good to know", Willow giggled, then quickly finished her share of the snacks before she grabbed her laptop and made herself comfortable, eager to get into the police's database once more to see what information they had about the newest victim of their new, so far still unknown, foe.


	7. Chapter 7

Thanks to the fact that she had hacked into the database already once the day before, it didn't take her long to get inside again; clearly, the police so far hadn't notice the fact that someone who wasn't supposed to was going through their files, since the security hadn't been changed at all, this lack of attention making Willow roll her eyes.

"No wonder they're not able to get anything done", she then told her girlfriend, the taller woman sitting on the sofa next to her and going through some of the old books they had at their home, looking for demons who used fire, "their security is a joke."

"Or you're just too good", Pat shrugged, briefly looking up at her and smirking before she focused on the book again, grumbling under her breath about the ridiculously small print.

"Why did they always use such tiny print back then?" she then asked the witch, the annoyed sound of her voice and her next words making Willow giggle slightly. "Did they all have perfect eyesight or what? No consideration for poor one-eyed people like me…"

"They had to put as much information as possible on as little paper as possible", Willow informed her once she had managed to stop giggling, even though she was aware of the fact that she probably told her something she'd already known, anyway. "Paper was expensive back then, you know."

"Of course I know", Pat let her know, turning the page and frowning at a rather ugly picture of some two-headed demon, then looking at her girlfriend again as she spoke on, now smirking slightly again. "I was there, remember? If some of the people I hung out with while I was still human would see how we handle paper today, they'd shit bricks."

"Language", Willow reprimanded in reply, giggling once more when the demon rolled her eye, then looked down on the book again and turned to the next page, letting out a noise of dismay when she saw the picture there, prompting the witch to take a look at it as well.

"You'd think a demon who's so… well equipped… would bother to wear pants", she then commented, making the black haired woman nod enthusiastically; then, the couple grinned at each other before they both focused on their tasks again, the room falling silent for a while, the only noises being the rustling of the paper as Pat turned the pages and the sounds of typing Willow produced as she looked through the files once more, looking for the right one and mentally cursing the silly naming system the police was using.

Finally though, she found the right one, smiling to herself when the information she'd been looking for appeared on the screen, proud that she had done it once more; quickly, she read through what the police had added to that file so far, her smile fading when she realized that there was no connection between Jane and this man, at least not at the first glance.

"Dammit", she muttered to herself, prompting the demon to look at her and ask her what was wrong; with a sigh, she gestured at the screen, sounding miffed when she replied, her words making Pat frown with dismay as well. "I was hoping I'd find some connection between Jane and this guy, but there's nothing… He didn't go to college, he was an employee at the video rental store, in his mid-thirties…"

"So he does choose them randomly", Pat figured, prompting Willow to nod glumly; even though she wasn't sure it'd be of any use, she focused on the file once more, quickly finding the entry for the evidence which had been found at the crime scene and had been sent to the lab, not surprised when she found nothing of interest there – past experience had shown that, even if the police did find some stuff related to demons, like teeth or bits of skin, it usually ended up discarded as irrelevant, due to the fact that it wasn't of human origin.

"Nothing else of interest here", she finally let her girlfriend know, logging out of the database and giving the laptop a sour look, as if it was the machine's fault that she hadn't found any new important information; carefully, she put it back on the table, then picked up one of the books and opened it, wondering if it was even making sense to go through it though – after all, the only information they had about the culprit so far was that he was using fire to kill, and she knew that there had to be hundreds of demons like that.

"I wonder if he has a lair somewhere", Pat now distracted her from those ponderings, making her look at the taller woman questioningly, the demon shrugging before she spoke on. "Well, I doubt he's just hanging out on the streets all the time, he must have some sort of hiding place. Maybe we should get a map and find out if there are any suitable locations close to the spots where the two were killed…"

"That's a good idea", Willow agreed, "I think Buffy has a map of the town at her house… We should give her a call and ask if we can come over."

"Yup", Pat gave back, already reaching for the phone; she quickly dialled Buffy's number, knowing it by heart, not surprised when the Slayer took the call after the third ring, smirking though at the fact that the blonde greeted her with "Hi Willow, what's up?"

"Well, I'm Pat, not Willow", she let Buffy know, smirking again when she heard the blonde clear her throat in reply, "but something really is up, and we need that map of Sunnydale you have at your home to check something. Mind if we come over?"

"Oh, no no", Buffy reassured her at once, "just drop by whenever you want, I'm so bored here anyway, I could need some company. Is this about the new flamey guy in town? Giles told me about it."

"Yeah, it is", Pat confirmed, "there've been two victims so far, and we need that map to see if we can figure out where he might have his lair."

"Makes sense", Buffy agreed, "so, as I said, come on over, I'll be waiting for you!"

"Alright, see you in a few then", Pat smiled, then said goodbye and hung up; the moment she had done so, Willow got up from her seat and made her way into the small anteroom to put on her shoes and jacket, the demon following her after a second, the couple leaving the apartment and heading for Buffy's house not even a minute later.

* * *

When they arrived at Buffy's home a short time later, the Slayer clearly already had been waiting for them, opening the door before they even had rang the bell and smiling brightly at them, asking them if they wanted anything to drink while she led them into the living room and offered them a seat there, the map they had requested already spread on the table.

"I'm so glad you guys came", she let them know after they had declined her offer for something to drink and had made themselves comfortable on the couch, Buffy herself taking the armchair she preferred, "I'm bored out of my mind here! Dawn's at school, I only leave the house for training at the Magic Box… If I don't feel better soon and can go back to college, and on patrol, I think I'll lose my mind."

"I imagine", Willow showed some sympathy, "but you are feeling better by now, aren't you? At least you look better already…"

"Thanks", Buffy smirked, "but I'm still awfully weak, you know, I did some cleaning today and after an hour, I had to sit down and catch my breath."

"Well, that's still better than last week, right?" Pat wanted to know, smiling slightly when Buffy nodded after a moment; then, she changed the topic to the unpleasant matter at hand by asking what they had found out about the flamey guy so far, making both of them grimace as they had admit that so far, they barely knew anything.

"He must be quite strong", Willow let her know, "Jane was a petite girl, but the second victim was a guy in his mid-thirties, quite well-built if the picture in the police file was a recent one. And he knows how to be stealthy, according to those files, no one in the buildings nearby saw or heard anything."

"That doesn't mean much though", Buffy sighed, "you know how the people here are…"

"Yup", Willow agreed, "but even the people here tell the police if they heard someone scream or something, but that didn't happen."

"So he must be fast, too", Buffy mused out loud after thinking about this quite good point for a while, "or maybe he knocks them out from behind and then kills them… Or maybe, they knew him."

"Well, the guy did work at the video rental store", Pat pointed out, "so he must've known quite a lot of people. Maybe we should ask the other clerks there if they noticed anything strange about their customers lately?"

"Good idea", Willow agreed, momentarily feeling like scolding herself for not thinking of this earlier; then, she shrugged it off and gestured at the map, reminding her girlfriend of the reason they had come here by stating that they should have a look at it now. Nodding her agreement, Pat asked Buffy if they could mark the spots where the two victims had been found and, after the Slayer had nodded as well, if she had a pen; once this had been provided, all three of them bent over the map, quickly finding the locations where the corpses had been found and marking them, silence filling the room afterwards as they all studied it.

"Hm", Buffy finally let out, making the couple look at her, "those spots are quite far from each other."

"Maybe his lair's somewhere in between?" Willow suggested, pointing out the area she was talking about, pouting when after looking at it, Buffy frowned, clearly not sure if her best friend was right.

"That's an area of single family homes", she pointed out the reason for her doubts, "wouldn't that be a rather bad hiding place? If he looks all demony, there's way too much danger to be seen by the people living there."

"Well, maybe he doesn't", Pat was the one to answer that, making them both look at her, "I mean, look at me, I don't look all demony unless I want to. It might be the same with him."

"Or he's not even a demon", Willow added, "it could be a witch, or a warlock."

"Alright", Buffy nodded, "good points, even though I don't like the thought of someone walking around out there, looking perfectly normal, and killing people with fire at night."

Those words made Willow think of the button she had found at the second crime scene, and for a moment, she nearly shuddered; then, she pushed those thoughts aside again, telling herself that they were silly, and nodded as well, then focused on the map once more, managing to sound perfectly normal when she spoke up.

"We should look if all of the houses there are sold or rented, or if any families have moved out shortly before the killing started", she suggested, "then we can check the officially empty houses for hints."

"Is it hard to find that out?" Buffy wanted to know, not surprised when Willow shook her head, smirking slightly when she replied. "Not at all, I'll just have to check the population register, they're usually pretty up to date."

"You do that, then", the Slayer gave back, smiling as well, "you can take the map along if it'll help…"

"You do have a computer and internet access, right?" Willow asked as an answer, briefly wondering if Buffy wanted them to leave again already, something which seemed highly unlikely, considering how she had complained about how boring it was to stay at home alone while Dawn was at school.

"Yeah", the Slayer now confirmed, grimacing as she realized that it had been quite silly to forget that small, but important detail. "And I can't believe I just forgot that", she thus added, "wait, I'll go get Dawn's laptop…"

With those words, she almost jumped up from her seat and hurried upstairs; it didn't take long until she came back, setting the laptop up on the living room table in front of the redhead before she made herself comfortable again, watching how Willow started the computer and waited impatiently for it to finish booting. Finally, the machine was ready to be used, and the witch did just that a second later, her fingers moving over the keyboard with the usual speed, both Buffy and Pat watching her interestedly, waiting to see what she would find and if those findings would be of any use when it came to finding their new foe.


	8. Chapter 8

"Alright", Willow mumbled after just ten minutes of staring at the screen, "the population register has even worse security than the police, shame on them. Anyway, one of the families moved out a week ago, and another house was sold shortly before that, so we might find something there."

Wordlessly, Buffy handed her a notepad in reply, and she quickly wrote down the exact addresses of the two houses in question; then, she logged out of the database again and smirked to herself, clearly pleased by how her hacking skills had helped once more.

"We should go there asap, and check those places out", Pat suggested, "maybe right now? If a normal family bought that one sold house, they might not be here now and won't notice us snooping around."

"Very good point", Buffy was the one to answer that, "I just wish I could come with you… I hate it to be cooped up in here like that."

"I know", the demon tried to console her in reply, fumbling for the right words – comforting people had never been something she'd been good at, not even when she still had been human such a long time ago.

"I'm sure you'll be able to go out and hunt nasty, ugly monsters with us again soon", she added after a moment, figuring that this was a good thing to say; to her relief, she clearly had been right, since Buffy nodded, smiling slightly – before she asked her friends if they wanted to leave right now, the slight pleading undertone in her voice making it obvious that she wasn't too happy with the thought.

"Um", Willow gave back, "I guess we can stay a bit longer…" At the last word, she glanced at her girlfriend, relieved to see the quiet agreement there; Buffy smiled heartily again, then asked them again if they wanted something to drink, her smile widening when they both agreed this time.

"I'll be right back", she then let them know, almost jumping up from her seat again and hurrying to the kitchen; the moment she could be sure that the blonde was out of earshot, Willow leaned closer to her girlfriend, keeping her voice low to make sure Buffy wouldn't hear her. "Poor her, she really hates it to stay here all the time… I hope she'll get better soon, or she'll get cabin fever or something."

"Yeah", the demon agreed, throwing a glance towards the kitchen entrance before she spoke on, her voice sympathetic. "I understand her though, I'd go crazy if I had to spend so much time just hanging around at home."

"Me too", Willow grimaced, then fell silent as she heard Buffy come back from the kitchen; to her relief, the blonde clearly hadn't heard them, smiling happily while she handed them the glasses with orange juice, then sat down again, her smile fading as she looked at the piece of paper on which Willow had written the addresses of the two houses they'd check out later that day.

"I don't like the thought of letting you go there alone", she then told the couple, ignoring the fact that it'd be the two of them and thus, they wouldn't be alone, "I should come with you… That's my job after all, my calling…"

"You stay here", Pat firmly gave back before Willow could reply, prompting the redhead to throw her girlfriend a grateful glance, the demon shaking her head at the look Buffy was giving her as an answer.

"And don't try that on me", she then added, "I have to admit I don't like the thought of someone out there who has powers that similar to mine, but if he does use fire the way I do, I'll be just as immune to his as he'll be to mine – so, even if you'd be fine, and you would come along, you'd be in much greater danger of getting seriously hurt than I'll be. So, I'd have to worry about that if you'd be there with me, and that'd distract me from fighting, and heighten the chance to have my firm ass kicked, and we don't want that, do we?"

"No", Buffy grudgingly admitted, then furrowed her brows, giving the black haired woman a look she didn't like at all, making her frown as well with her next words.

"But Willow will come with you", the blonde pointed out, "won't she be in danger and so, distracting you as well?"

"Technically", Pat sighed, "but she can do magic and protect herself, plus, I'll try to keep that guy away from her as well, should we run into him."

"It'd of course be fine for you to come along if you'd have your full strength", Willow now decided to intervene as well, making the Slayer look at her, "but, in your current state, Pat's right, it's too dangerous for you to come along…"

"Alright", Buffy finally gave in, sighing heavily as well, but at least seeing reason, "you're right… I'd only make this more difficult. Promise me you'll be careful though!"

"Of course", Willow reassured her, giving her girlfriend a strict look and prompting her to keep her mouth closed about the fact that usually, she tended to be rather reckless; smiling weakly, Buffy nodded, then sighed once more before she told them they'd better got going, knowing that the mysterious culprit had to be found before he could claim yet another victim.

* * *

Another half an hour later, the couple had reached the area where the two houses they wanted to check out were located; the one where the family had left a week ago had a "For Sale" sign on the small front lawn, while the other one, on the opposite street, clearly showed signs of someone living there, a welcome mat lying in front of the door and several toys being scattered on the equally small lawn.

"I guess our man is not living in that one", Pat told her girlfriend after looking at said toys for a while, "unless he likes to play with that stuff, all of it clearly has been used."

"Agreed", Willow nodded, studying the toys as well, "and I don't think he'd play with that to make it look that way and then place it here, that's too cunning for a demon."

"Hey!" the demon protested in response, the redhead's eyes briefly going wide as she realized what she had said – before she hurriedly apologized and reassured her girlfriend that she had meant the evil, nasty demons, and surely not her.

"Hmph", Pat let out in reply, then clearly shrugged it off after giving her girlfriend another sour look, gesturing at the house which was for sale and changing the topic by asking the smaller woman if they should check the empty house out, then. Nodding, Willow quickly moved to the closest window of said house and tried to peek inside; to her dismay, the previous owners had left their curtains though, the fabric obscuring the view and making it impossible for her to see more than a few vague shapes.

"Dammit", she thus mumbled, turning to give the taller woman a dismayed look, "whoever lived here before didn't take the curtains when they moved out! Who does something like that?"

"The people who lived here before?" Pat shrugged, quickly looking around and hoping no one would see her before she moved to the front door and tried the knob, not surprised to find it locked.

"Keep an eye out", she instructed her girlfriend while she pulled out her wallet, briefly making Willow wonder what she wanted to do – before she realized what the taller woman had in mind when she saw how she removed one of her bank cards, bending it a bit before she nodded to herself, then carefully inserted the card into the thin gap between the door and the frame.

"Cross your fingers that this'll work", she mumbled, her brows furrowing with concentration, "it's been a while since I did that."

"I surely hope so", Willow gave back, her gaze moving back and forth between what her girlfriend was doing at the door and the sidewalk; to her relief, no one was around to see Pat break in, at least not on the street, the witch hoping that no one in the neighbour houses was at home and was watching through the window.

"Hurry up", she thus muttered to the demon, quickly looking at her again, despite her worries smiling slightly when she saw the look of concentration on Pat's face; nodding, the taller woman jiggled the bank card in the gap once more, then smirked as a clicking sound could be heard, quickly turning the knob afterwards, her smirk widening when the door swung open immediately.

"I still got it", she then proudly let her girlfriend know, making her nod – before she quickly stepped into the house, the demon following her a second later, closing the door behind herself before she looked around.

Aside from the curtains, the previous owners also had left several pieces of furniture, covered with white sheets; dust was collecting in the corners, and the house had the smell of a place that hadn't been aired out for quite some time.

"They're not gonna sell this house if they don't take care of it", Willow made it clear that she had noticed that as well, wrinkling her nose while she moved from the anteroom to the kitchen, the smell being even stronger there and causing her to shudder.

"How can this place smell like this after just a week?" she then demanded to know as she heard her girlfriend join her; shrugging, Pat looked around, then moved from the kitchen to the living room, eying the covered furniture there, letting out a heavy sigh afterwards, turning to look at her girlfriend with a look of dismay on her face.

"He's not here", she stated what was quite obvious, "so that was a waste of time…"

"I was afraid this would be the outcome of this little break-in", Willow sighed, looking around the almost empty room as well, knowing that her girlfriend was right, grimacing as she thought of what this might mean.

"If you don't find this guy on patrol tonight, he'll kill again", she let the taller woman know, making her nod with a frown on her face as well; momentarily not sure what to do, she scratched the back of her head, then spoke up again, her words making the redhead's face light up, even though she didn't guess the reason for this correctly. "Maybe you should come along, and do some locator magic… Would that make sense?"

"It'd be kinda like throwing out a big net", Willow gave back, giving her best to hide how overjoyed she was about this, thinking to herself that, if Pat wanted her to come along and help with finding the culprit, surely she couldn't be the one who had done all this herself, no matter if she had found one of her buttons at one of the crime scenes or not.

"It's worth a try, I guess", she thus added, "too bad we didn't take any of the stuff we found at the spots where he killed, then I could use that…"

Momentarily, she thought of the button again, and realized that she wasn't exactly honest about not taking any stuff; then, she shrugged those thoughts off when the demon gave her a smile and told her that it was worth a try anyway, making her nod before they left the house together, heading back to their apartment to get some rest before they'd go on patrol.


	9. Chapter 9

Several hours later, the witch and the demon had left their home and were heading for the spot where the last victim had been found; they both knew that it probably wouldn't be of much use, since so far, they had no idea if the one responsible for the killings would come back to that particular place, but they agreed on the fact that it was a better idea than just wandering the town at random and hoping they'd run into him on accident.

"Maybe he left some trail there when he killed them", Willow let her girlfriend know as they walked through the quiet streets, only a few pedestrians passing them every now and then, "that's how I found that assassin after I thought you're dead, but I'm not sure it'll work again…"

"Why not?" Pat wanted to know, lighting up a cigarette while Willow shrugged, then replied, giving her a rueful smile. "Well, I was all angry and sad and… I was using that dark magic again, you know, the stuff I sucked from the Dark Arts books in the Magic Box, after Tara got shot… That was helping with locating and following the trail, but I'm not sure I could do it without that dark magic, and honestly, I don't wanna tap into that again…"

"Understandable", Pat gave back, "so that's out of the question, then… Well, maybe we'll be lucky and you'll find something without tapping into that."

"I hope so", Willow sighed, frowning when the spot where the second victim had been killed appeared in the distance and she saw that the crime scene tape had been removed; the chalk outline was still faintly visible, but obviously, someone had tried to clean it, making it clear that the scene was considered finished by the police.

"I wonder if they found anything", she thought out loud, gesturing at the sidewalk and pointing out the lack of crime scene tape to her girlfriend, "normally, they don't remove that tape until they're fully done."

"You can check their database again", Pat suggested, then fell silent as she watched how Willow reached into the small bag she had brought and brought out an even smaller one, opening it and pouring some sort of dark blue powder on her hand, shaking her head when the demon asked if she could help.

"Just keep an eye out so no one will disturb us", she gave back absent-mindedly, already focused on the spell – before she realized what she had said, her eyes going wide as she looked at her girlfriend again. "Um… I meant…"

"I know what you meant", Pat cut her off, "and I'll stand watch. Just try to find something, okay?"

Nodding, Willow gave her another apologetic look, not believing she had been so tactless – normally, it was Buffy's speciality to make such remarks and regret them a second after they had been said, but she was more careful about that special, painful subject. Then, she forced herself to push those thoughts aside, knowing she had to empty her mind if she wanted to have the slightest chance for the spell to work; she closed her eyes and took in a few deep breaths, giving her best to let all her thoughts flow away, letting all the doubts and worries that burdened her fall off of her as calm darkness spread within her mind.

Finally, she opened her eyes again, not noticing how Pat smirked at the well-known sparkle that had entered them, that certain glint she'd only get when she was close to doing magic; mumbling the words of the spell beneath her breath, so low that not even the demon could make them out, she raised the hand with the powder on the palm, blowing heartily on it right after she had said the last word, the tiny blue corns spreading out from her hand, then settling on the sidewalk, where the started to glow and reform themselves a moment later, sketching a map of Sunnydale onto the dark concrete.

"Come on", she whispered, again so caught up in staring at the glowing image that she didn't notice how Pat moved closer to her, squinting as she looked down on the sidewalk as well, "show me where he is…"

For a few more seconds, nothing happened; then, a glowing dot appeared on the map, the witch's eyes lighting up at the sight – before several more dots popped into existence, causing her face to grow long and to let out a low "Damn!", the curse prompting her girlfriend to give her a worried and curious look.

"It didn't work", the redhead sighed, gesturing at the map as if to clarify, the clueless look she received in response making it clear though that she had to explain further.

"The damned spell is showing me all the demons", she thus told the taller woman, watching with dismay how even more dots appeared, as if to confirm her words.

"Look", she added, pointing at one which was glowing brighter than most of the others, the brightness of the glow lessening the farther the dots in question were away from the one she had pointed out, "there's you. Yours is so bright because you're standing right here, the closer a demon is to the caster of a spell, the brighter it glows."

"Oh, I see", Pat gave back, then frowned and bent down to take a closer look, making Willow wonder briefly if her girlfriend had seen something she had missed, a question the demon answered before it even had been asked by grasping her sleeve and tugging at it, the redhead after a second realizing what her partner wanted and bending down as well.

"If I'm that brightly glowing dot here, then another demon is right around that corner", Pat mumbled, making sure to keep her voice low so the one who possibly was spying on them wouldn't hear her. "I know the chances for that are small, but it might be our guy so… Can you do a binding spell on him from here? Without seeing him?"

Immediately, Willow nodded, straightening up again before she briefly closed her eyes, once more emptying her mind; she visualized what she needed to do the binding, roots that were snaking through the earth beneath the thick asphalt covering it, whispering the words to herself while Pat already started moving, the startled cry coming from the alley a second after her girlfriend had fallen silent again making her smirk, since it had shown that the spell had worked out just fine.

Already clenching her fists, she sped up her steps, almost running by the time she reached the corner behind which the demon was hiding; when she rounded it though and saw whom Willow had captured, she slowed down, then stopped fully, frowning as she studied the well-known face, the hanging ears and flabby skin, and the droopy eyes which were looking at her pleadingly.

"Please don't hurt me", Clem almost whined, briefly making her wonder if he didn't recognize her, "I just wanted to… Oh. Hi Pat."

"Hi Clem", Pat sighed out, then crossed her arms over her chest and gave him a sour look, gesturing at the vines which had wrapped around his ankles and kept him firmly in place. "Care to tell me why you're snooping around here? We thought you're our guy."

"The dumpsters", Clem explained in reply, gesturing at them as if to underline his words, "cats often come here looking for food, so…"

"So you look for food here", Pat finished for him, grimacing, holding up her hands when he looked as if he wanted to elaborate further. "That's all the info I need, thanks."

She sighed again, dismayed about the outcome of this tiny adventure, then moved back to the corner and called out to Willow that it was just Clem and that she could free him; nodding her agreement, the witch did just that, and after throwing the demon a thankful look, Clem turned around and hurried off without another word, his hunger clearly forgotten.

"Wait!" Pat tried to stop him, remembering too late that he might have valuable information on the guy they were looking for, "I need to—"

Before she had a chance to finish, he had rounded the corner at the other end of the side alley and was gone; snorting, the demon shook her head to herself, then took the time to light up a cigarette before she returned to her girlfriend, nodding when the redhead asked her if they'd just patrol without any leads then, giving her best to hide her dismay about the failure of their plan as they started walking again, asking herself if this meant that yet another person would have to die that night.

* * *

In the next morning, the first thing Willow did after getting up was to check the various online newspaper pages, looking for a report about yet another person burned to death; the patrol during the previous night had been unsettlingly uneventful, with only a few random vamps Pat had finished off quickly, but they both had known that this didn't mean that the killings were over when they finally had given up and had returned to their home.

Momentarily, she felt relieved when she found no news about a third murder on any of the websites; then, her heart sank again though as she thought of the button and the pile of cigarette butts once more and realized what the lack of a third victim could mean.

_Last night you were with her, _a poisonous voice whispered from the back of her mind, managing to make itself heard no matter how hard she tried to block it out. _You were with her, so she had no chance to kill again… Just wait what will happen tonight, when she'll go alone again… _

"No", she mumbled to herself, her glance wandering to the closed bedroom door, the demon still slumbering soundly behind it, "she wouldn't…"

Shaking her head to herself, Willow forced herself to focus on the screen again, closing the newspaper site and entering the police's database once more; since they still hadn't thought of updating their security, probably hadn't even noticed so far that someone who wasn't supposed to enter had done just that, it took her just a minute to get into the database again, the file of the second victim opening on her screen another thirty seconds later, making her glad that she had memorized the – at least to her – nonsensical name of the file.

When she saw that nothing had been added to it since she had checked it the last time, she wasn't sure if she should be relieved or worried; then, the bedroom door opened behind her and Pat joined her in the living room, rubbing her good eye tiredly with one hand and scratching the back of her head with the other one.

"It's early", she then mumbled, surprisingly coherent despite the fact she just had gotten out of bed, "what'cha doing out of bed already?"

"I wanted to see if anyone else was killed last night", Willow gave back, once more giving her best to hide what she had been pondering before her girlfriend had gotten up, and clearly succeeding, since the demon just gave her a questioning look, even managing to smirk slightly when the redhead let her know that no one else had fallen victim to the new foe.

"Coffee", she then grunted, making the witch smile, an honest smile this time, despite her worries; with another grunt, Pat moved on into the kitchen, the sounds of her preparing the much needed beverage echoing through the apartment moments later while Willow focused on the screen of her laptop once more, reading through the police file for a second time, just to make sure she hadn't missed any important information.

Once she could be sure that she had gotten everything, as little as it was, she finally logged out again and closed the laptop, prompting it to go into standby mode with that annoying little jingle while she rose from her seat and joined her girlfriend in the kitchen, not surprised to find her at the table there, smoking a cigarette and staring at the coffee machine, as if her intense glaring would make it get done faster.

"You know, glaring at the coffee won't make it be finished any sooner", the witch pointed out, smirking when Pat just let out another grunt – obviously, her coherence had been a fleeting thing, and now she had returned to the usual means of communications at such early hours.

"What are you doing up already anyway?" Willow asked anyway, giving her a curious look while she checked the fridge for possible breakfast, even though she didn't feel all too hungry. "I have a reason to be up, I need to be at the campus in an hour, but you could just have gone on sleeping."

"Nuh-uh", the demon muttered, taking a long drag of her cigarette before she spoke on, the words coming out in a mixture of normal speech and low growls. "Magic Box. Big delivery."

"Oh my", the witch grimaced in reply, immediately feeling sorry for the taller woman – lately, Anya had stopped hounding them about paying whenever they used stuff from the store, but as if to make up for that act of kindness, she now practically insisted that Pat helped her out whenever a big delivery came, a request which basically amounted to the demon carrying big and heavy boxes back and forth while Anya stood by with clipboard in hand and gave more or less helpful advice.

"Poor you", Willow thus showed sympathy, earning another grunt; then, the coffee machine finally got done and distracted Pat from the conversation, the black haired woman almost jumping up from her seat and rushing to the machine, making her girlfriend smile as she watched, once more giving her best to keep any dark thoughts about the possible responsibility of the woman she loved for the recent murders out of her troubled mind.


	10. Chapter 10

After the two classes she had had at college that day, Willow didn't feel like going home to an empty apartment, figuring that Pat would still be at the Magic Box; thus, she made her way there, not surprised to see the "Closed" sign hanging at the door – at first, Anya had left the store open even when she had been at the back room, handling deliveries, but after a few unpleasant incidents with people coming in and stealing stuff while she wasn't around, she had seen reason and closed the store while she was handling her new merchandise.

Smiling to herself as she thought about how much Anya had ranted after those incidents, about how stealing was unpatriotic and that those people should be ashamed, Willow made her way to the back of the store, finding the door there open; momentarily, she wondered if she should point out the fact that this was a security flaw as well to the ex-demon, then shrugged it off and entered, the voices of her girlfriend and of Anya reaching her ears moments later, their words making her grimace.

"No no, that box goes up there, I'm telling you!" Anya insisted, in that tone of voice they all knew well; when Pat replied, she sounded quite exasperated, making Willow feel sympathetic for her once more. "And if I put it up there, how are you ever gonna get it back down? Don't count on me to lift the fucking thing from that shelf when you need it in a week or so."

"Language, Sweetie", Willow spoke up as she joined the two at the shelves in the far back of the room, before Anya had the chance to reply anything; Pat just let out an annoyed huff in reply, still holding the box she had been arguing about with Anya, a rather big one, and obviously heavy, since it made the muscles in her upper arms and forearms bulge visibly.

"Anya, I'm telling you", the demon now tried reason again, "if I put that damned thing up there, you'll only ask me to take it down again in a few days, or it'll fall on you and smash your skull when you try to take it down yourself."

"Fine!" the ex-demon finally gave in, after what clearly had been a lengthy discussion, judging from Pat's annoyed tone, "put it on the ground then! In that corner over there."

With those words, she pointed at said corner, the one which was farthest from the spot where the black haired woman was standing; for a moment, Pat looked as if she wanted to argue again, then she just let out an annoyed grunt and carried the box to said corner, dropping it there unceremoniously.

"There", she then announced, forcing Willow to hold back a giggle, "are we done here now? I want a smoke."

"Yeah, go, go", Anya gave back, already focused on her clipboard and waving at the demon with her free hand as if that would make her leave faster, "we're done."

"Thank Goodness", Pat muttered, prompting Willow to bite her tongue again so yet another giggle was stifled; she gave her girlfriend a sympathetic look while together, they made their way to the back door again and stepped outside, the demon lighting up one of her cigarettes the moment the door had fallen close behind the redhead.

"I swear, one of these days, I'm gonna dump one of these crates into her arms and watch how she goes down", she grumbled after the first long drag. "Then I'll point and laugh when she's on the ground."

"Don't be nasty", Willow chided as an answer, not fully serious though, having to admit that she understood her girlfriend's annoyance. "You know how she is", she added, reaching out and grasping the taller woman's free hand, "she just can't help herself."

"That doesn't make it any better", Pat grumbled, then let out a sigh and clearly shrugged it off, since she smiled at the redhead and asked her how the classes at campus had been. "Interesting", Willow gave back at once, the demon's smirk widening at how enthusiastic she became about the topics of her classes within two seconds.

"The new psychology professor is really good", she went on, "and thankfully, she's not an evil assassin, out to kill Buffy, which gives her bonus points in my book."

"In mine, too", Pat reassured her, then fell silent again as Willow kept babbling on about her classes, listening with a small smile on her face while she finished her cigarette, her anger about Anya's annoying behaviour fading away as her girlfriend's enthusiasm and happiness rubbed off on her, making her feel as relaxed as she hardly ever felt when Willow wasn't around.

* * *

"You wanna come along again tonight?" Pat asked several hours later, back at the apartment, sitting on the couch and re-sharpening a few stakes with one of her older daggers; next to her, Willow looked up from the book she had been reading, briefly frowning at the tiny slivers of wood the demon was spreading all over the table and the carpet beneath it, then shrugged it off and shook her head, giving the taller woman a regretful look. "I'd love to, but I have class early tomorrow morning, so…"

"What a pity", Pat sighed, putting the stake aside and picking up the next one, spreading more slivers all around her as she started sharpening it, "it's nicer to go with someone else, going all alone is boring. I dunno how Buffy did it before I came here and started going with her."

"We went with her sometimes", Willow reminded her girlfriend, giggling at the grimace which appeared on the black haired woman's face in response.

"I'm trying to forget that", Pat then told her, "because back then, you weren't nearly as powerful as you're now, and you could so easily have gotten hurt or killed. Then we never would have met."

"But you wouldn't know", Willow pointed out, "because I would've been dead by the time you arrived here. So you wouldn't miss me, or being with me."

"Okay, this is putting knots in my brain, so new topic", Pat decided after a moment of thinking about this, making the witch giggle once more; then, she gestured at the splinters and slivers of wood on the floor and on the table, succeeding to make the demon grimace again with what she said next. "New topic then, you'll clean this up before you leave, right?"

"Yes, dear", the black haired woman sighed out in such a melodramatic way that she made her girlfriend laugh again, the redhead reaching up to punch her upper arm slightly afterwards. "With just two words, you managed to make me sound like the worst girlfriend ever. I just don't wanna step on those things when I go to the bathroom in the night, it's creepy."

"This coming from the girl who fights vampires, demons and even went up against the devil", Pat chuckled, "and of course you're not the worst girlfriend ever. In fact, you're the best."

"You only say that because I'm your first one", Willow smirked, glad that for once, she didn't blush – even though she had gotten much better about it, especially since she had started dating a demon who didn't bother much with tact when it came to making compliments, she still turned red every now and then when her girlfriend said such things to her, even if they had been as innocent as what she just had been told.

"I'd also say it if I'd had a hundred before you", the demon reassured her, finally getting done with the stakes and putting the dagger aside so she could put both arms around the smaller woman without any danger of accidentally cutting her, "because you are the best."

"That's so cute", Willow sighed out, her eyes sparkling – before she gestured at the splinters again, smirking up at the taller woman. "That doesn't get you out of cleaning this up, though."

"I know", Pat grumbled, making the redhead laugh once more; she craned her neck to steal a quick kiss, then focused on her book again while her girlfriend stood up from the couch to get the dustpan and brush, mumbling to herself about silly, dull stakes and silly splinters, not noticing that Willow was watching her instead of focusing on her reading, the witch quietly telling herself that once more, someone who was as sweet and caring as that surely couldn't be the one responsible for those gruesome murders, no matter how much evidence was pointing towards her.

* * *

After Pat had left for patrol, Willow stayed up a bit longer, now finally able to focus fully on her book; she read for almost two hours, taking notes every now and then, then finally deciding that she had studied enough for the night and snapped the book shut, placing it on the living room table – after a quick glance at it to make sure that her girlfriend had cleaned it properly and no creepy splinters had been missed.

Once she had reassured herself of that, she made her way into the bedroom where she changed into her fluffy pyjamas; a quick glance on the clock on her nightstand made it clear that it'd take a while until Pat would come back, and she held back a sigh – when they had come back home the previous night after going on patrol together, they both had felt certain effects caused by the thrill of killing things, and had given in to their urges, but that didn't mean that by now, those urges hadn't resurfaced.

Briefly, she wondered if she'd still be in the mood when Pat would come home from patrol, and how much longer that might take; then, she pushed those thoughts aside and told herself that she shouldn't behave like a horny teenager before she made herself comfortable beneath the thick blanket and switched off the lamp on the nightstand, drifting off into dreamland just a few minutes later.

* * *

Several hours later, a low thumping noise tore Willow out of her – quite pleasant – dreams, and within seconds, she was fully awake, worry filling her heart even though at first, she wasn't sure, why; then, the thumping came again, and her heart started beating up to her chest while she soundlessly got out of bed, moving around it and to the chest of weapons Pat kept at her side, images of burglars, thieves and pissed off demons who burned their victims alive and didn't want anyone to snoop after them dancing through her mind while she opened it soundlessly and grabbed the first object her fingers found, a rather sturdy wooden club, several spikes sticking out of the rounded top to make any landed hits much more painful.

Clutching the weapon tightly, she snuck over to the door, glad that her girlfriend had taken the time to teach her how to move soundlessly; holding her breath, she pushed the door handle down as slowly as possible, glad when the noise this created was minimal; hoping that she wouldn't be seen, and that whoever was in here with her wasn't waiting right in front of the door, she pushed it open slowly, all caution blown away when she found herself confronted with a dark, looming shadow, a single, brightly orange glowing eye staring down on her.

Letting out a shriek, she brought the club up, then down with all her might; to her dismay, the intruder reacted faster than she would have wanted him or her to, one hand shooting up and catching the wood before it could connect, but at least Willow had the satisfaction to know that the metal spikes had dug right into the intruder's palm, the reaction making her eyes widen again though.

"Ow, fuck, goddammit, what's wrong with you?" an all too familiar voice cursed, filled with pain; shocked, all Willow could do was stare in reply, automatically letting go of the club. It fell down to the carpet with a low thump, forgotten the moment it landed there, the witch frantically searching for the light switch, bright light flooding the room seconds later, a gasp escaping the redhead when her gaze fell on her girlfriend the moment her eyes had gotten used to the light, the demon holding up her injured hand so the blood wouldn't drip to the carpet and glaring at her.

"What's wrong with you?" Pat now repeated, grimacing as pain pulsed through her palm, "why did you attack me?"

"I'm sorry! I thought you're a burglar!" Willow gave back, now glad that her loved one had such fast reactions, not wanting to imagine what could have happened if she hadn't caught the club, "why didn't you turn on the light?"

"I wanted to see if you're still awake and, in case you're not, didn't want to wake you up", the demon grumbled, then took a drag of her cigarette, the redhead nearly slapping herself when she realized that she had mistaken the cancer stick's glow for a malicious eye in the darkness.

"It's three a.m.", she then pointed out, "and I told you I have classes early tomorrow morning… or later today… so of course I wasn't awake anymore."

"So you were sleepwalking when you nearly bashed my head in and shishkabobbed my hand instead?" Pat dryly inquired, the witch giving her an apologetic look in reply, then stepped closer to examine her lover's injured palm, grimacing when she saw the deep cuts the spikes had tore into the flesh.

"I'm sorry", she repeated the apology she already had made earlier, "I really didn't mean to… Well, I did, but I thought you're a burglar, as I said. Or that guy we've been after. Are you gonna demon out to heal that or should I get the first aid kit?"

"Demon out", Pat gave back at once, "there's no way I'll try to fight vampires and demons with those cuts in my hand."

"Good point", Willow admitted, taking a few steps back so she wouldn't end up being burned when her girlfriend would demon out, eying the demon curiously afterwards, speaking on before the taller woman had a chance to turn into her demonic form. "Talking about fighting, did you get into a hairpulling contest with a vampire or something? You surely look as if you did."

"More or less", Pat grumbled, her voice deepening even further to a low, throaty growl as flames started to flicker around her and she started to change, her awfully tousled hair growing longer and thicker and her muscles bulging, the redhead watching the process with fascination – she had witnessed her lover demon out a lot of times by now, but it never would cease to look interesting.

"I fought some girly vampire fledging", the demon continued her explanation once she had finished demoning out and the cuts in her palm were closing with unpleasant fleshy noises, "and she truly fought like a girl. She even kicked me in the shin after she pulled my hair!"

"Oh jeez", Willow brought out between giggles, "I wish I could have seen that… It must have looked hilarious."

"No it wasn't", Pat protested, shifting back to her human form again the moment the wounds had healed and grimacing slightly as she made a fist to see if it really had healed properly, "and she nearly tore off my eyepatch. It would have been really annoying to buy another one again, the guy in the store already gave me a weird look the last time I went there."

"Poor you", the witch finally showed some sympathy, then stepped closer again and took her girlfriend's hand, checking it as well, "but, well, at least it all ended well. Let's go get some sleep now?"

"Yup", the demon agreed at once, a hearty yawn escaping her afterwards, "patrol was tiring, and the fact that my girlfriend attacked me right after I came home didn't help to make me feel more awake, either."

"I'm so sorry", Willow apologized once more, smiling this time though – after all, she knew her partner long and well enough by now to know that she already had been forgiven and also suspected that, despite the injury she had been forced to take, Pat was proud of her for acting the way she had.

"It's okay", the taller woman now confirmed those suspicions, "you did well, if it really had been a burglar, he'd be out cold now and you wouldn't be in danger. And nothing bad happened, so…"

"So let's go and get some sleep", the redhead emphasized her need for more rest again, grasping her girlfriend's free hand; quickly, the demon put out her cigarette in reply, then entered the bedroom with her loved one, the night's excitement forgotten a few minutes later as they both made themselves comfortable in the bed and quickly fell into deep, peaceful slumber.


	11. Chapter 11

The next morning was just as peaceful as the rest of the night had been, the couple having breakfast together – to Willow's quite big surprise, since usually, Pat avoided it to get up so early – before the witch left for campus, already looking forward to the lessons of the day.

The moment she entered the cafeteria though, eager to get some more caffeine before the first class, she realized that her good mood wouldn't remain much longer – the faces of the students around were shocked, sad or both, and they all kept their voices low as they talked to each other, briefly making her wonder what was going on. Before she could find someone she knew and ask them though, one of the guys she shared her psychology class with spotted her and moved up to her, keeping his voice low as well when he spoke up. "Willow, hey, good morning… You didn't hear yet?"

"Hear what?" the redhead gave back, hoping he wouldn't notice how fast her heart suddenly was beating, the certainty that something horrible had happened again all at once filling her mind.

"Carina was killed last night", the student informed her, the witch letting out a gasp in reply – she hadn't known the girl very well, only had sat next to her a few times during class, but she knew that Carina had been a kind, loveable girl, always willing to help whenever someone needed it.

"She was killed just like Jane and that guy from the video rental store, the newspaper said so", the guy now went on, making her look at him again, her head swimming as her mind was racing, trying to shut up the nasty voices which were whispering unpleasant facts.

"And the police is totally useless", the student went on, now not sounding down and sad anymore, but slightly angry, "I mean, how hard can it be to find someone who burns people alive? That's not a very unobtrusive way to kill someone, after all!"

_Maybe not if a human does it, but we are in Sunnydale, _Willow thought to herself while she nodded in reply, momentarily asking herself again how people could live here for years and not notice what was going on – before she reminded herself of the fact that after all, she hadn't been that much different when she'd been in High School, before she had met Buffy and had learned the truth about the town.

"That's horrible", she made herself say, since the way the guy was looking at her now made it clear that he expected some kind of an answer, "poor Carina… Let's hope they'll catch this bastard soon."

"Yeah", the student agreed, clearly satisfied by her words since he excused himself and moved to one of his closer friends; remaining where she was, Willow looked after him, her mind picking up speed again, her heart hammering up to her throat as she thought about what this could mean.

_Two people were killed when Pat was on patrol alone two nights in a row, _that nasty, unwanted voice whispered to her, _then you went with her and no one died… And yesterday, she went alone again, and again, someone's been killed. You can't ignore this anymore. _

Even though she hated to do so, she had to admit that this was right; by now, all the coincidences had become too many to ignore, her thoughts returning to the button she had found at the spot where the second victim had been killed, then to the strong smell of smoke which had clung to the demon once when she had come home, in the same night a house had been turned down.

Then, she thought of how Pat had looked when she had come back home the previous night, her heart performing a daring summersault in her chest when she wondered if maybe, the police found some black and red hair at the spot where poor Carina had been killed; and even though she didn't want to know, didn't want to face the possibility that her girlfriend might be the one responsible for those deaths, she knew that she had to, and that this would have to be the first thing she'd do right after coming home.

_Please let me be wrong, _she thought to herself and to anyone else who might be listening and willing to help, not sure how it would be handled if she'd really find out that her girlfriend was the one who had done all those horrible things, _please let it all be just a row of freaky coincidences and nothing more… _

With quite the display of mental determination, Willow finally managed to push those thoughts aside, telling herself that it was useless to ponder this now and that she had to focus on her classes; as quick as the rather long queue allowed it, she got the cup of coffee she had come to the cafeteria for in the first place, then made her way to the hall were the first class of the day would be held, already knowing though that no matter how hard she'd try, she wouldn't be able to concentrate properly, not with all the worries and fears that now were on her mind.

* * *

Just as she had planned to, the first thing Willow did after coming home was to start up her laptop and hack into the police database again, even managing to ignore her girlfriend when she asked her what was going on; frowning, Pat watched her type away on the keyboard, asking herself if something had happened at the college and if this event was responsible for how obviously upset her girlfriend was.

"Hey", she tried to gain her attention again, sitting down next to her, "what's wrong? Are you okay?"

To her dismay, Willow didn't even look at her, but kept staring at the screen of her laptop, her face paling so drastically that for a moment, the demon feared she might faint; then, finally, the witch cleared her throat and looked at her, her voice flat when she replied. "Something is wrong indeed, I'm afraid… Look."

With those words, she turned the laptop on the table so Pat could look at the screen, the black haired woman squinting as she did so, as always not all too happy about reading stuff on a computer monitor, something which was quite straining for her good eye. Still she quickly figured out what the witch was showing her, and frowned to herself – it was a police report, on yet another victim of their new fiery villain, a girl from the college who had been killed the previous night.

Briefly, she wondered if Willow had known this girl well and that her death was the reason why she was so upset; then, her gaze fell on another part of the file, and she frowned to herself when she realized it was about the evidence that had been found at the new crime scene, one of those things being a long strand of black and red hair.

"Why are you…" she started, then the realization hit her and her eye went wide as she looked up from the screen and at her girlfriend, her voice full of disbelief when she spoke on. "You think it was me, don't you. You think I killed those people…?"

"I'm not sure what to think", Willow gave back, knowing that she had to choose her words carefully if she wanted to avoid starting a nasty fight within the next few minutes, "but… Sweetie, honestly, I'm not accusing you of anything, but, well, I found that button that has been missing from your shirt that one night, at the place where the second victim was killed… And then you smelled of smoke one night after that house was burned down…"

"I explained to you why that happened", Pat gave back, the hint of annoyance in her voice growing stronger as she continued. "And there must be millions of those buttons out there! Why do you think I did this?"

"Please don't get mad", Willow tried to calm her down in reply, even though she knew that it wouldn't be of much use, not with this level of annoyance already showing through the demon's voice. "But, Sweetie, you have to understand…"

With those words, she began listing all the things she had noticed, too many things to be written off as simple coincidence; at first, Pat just listened to her, but the longer she talked, the angrier the demon was looking, to the witch's great dismay.

"So", the taller woman slowly started as soon as Willow had finished talking and had fallen silent, "you piled up all that… evidence… Never thought of maybe asking me about it, but instead just kept collecting it, and now you throw it into my face like that? And then you expect me not to get mad?"

"As I said, I'm not accusing you", Willow tried to reason once more, shifting on her seat nervously – she hated it to fight with her girlfriend, but by now, she was quite sure that it would happen sooner or later, and most likely sooner.

"Maybe… maybe someone's trying to frame you", she went on, desperately looking for the answers she wanted to be given as well, "or… something else… Did anything weird happen when you went on patrol alone?"

"…no", Pat gave back after a moment of hesitation just long enough to let Willow notice, the flicker in her eye as well showing that she wasn't fully honest, "and I can't believe that you at first think I'd so something like that and only when I get mad about that, you try to figure out other possibilities!"

"I'm sorry!" Willow replied, now getting slightly worked up as well, "but, come on, you can't tell me this doesn't seem strange to you! If Buffy found all this evidence with any other demon, she'd be sure he's the one responsible!"

"Oh, so you wanna say that Buffy would be here already to kick my ass if she knew about this?" Pat snapped, getting out her cigarettes and lighting one of them up before she spoke on. "Seriously, I can't just get it into my head that you think I'd go out and kill people at night! You of all people should know I'm not like that! Goddammit, you were there when I lost that fucking eye, fighting on _your_ side!"

"I know!" Willow tried to calm her down once more, "and I'm not saying it's your fault, really… Maybe someone's controlling you, or there's a spell…"

"Or maybe it's not even me", the demon now nearly shouted, jumping up from her seat, too agitated to remain there, "did you ever consider that?"

"I do!" Willow gave back, "I said so, maybe somebody's framing you! Please, just calm down so we can talk about this…"

"So we can talk about how maybe, someone made me kill those people?" Pat demanded to know, the witch's tries to calm her down clearly not working at all. "Maybe we can also come up with an answer to the question why, after years of fighting with you guys, on the good side, I suddenly should feel the urge to go and kill people, huh?"

"Look", the redhead tried reason once more as an answer, "as I've said before, I'm not accusing you of anything… I know you're on our side! Do you think I'd still be with you if I thought anything else?"

Even though she had tried to keep her calm during the unpleasant discussion, she was getting angry as well now, and the fact that the demon was looking daggers at her didn't help to keep those feelings down, either.

"We have to figure this out", she went on, giving her best to hide her anger, knowing it would only make things worse, "or even more people are going to die! If you're on our side, you don't want that to happen…"

Instantly, she realized that this had been the wrong choice of words when she saw how the gaze of her partner darkened; and when Pat spoke up in reply, she did so between clenched teeth, sounding as if she was close to exploding. "So, now we've moved from 'Maybe someone's manipulating you' to '_If_ you're on our side?' When did that happen?"

"Don't yell at me", Willow snapped as an answer, now getting up as well, the demon only realizing now how loud her voice actually had been, "this isn't leading anywhere! We have to figure this out somehow before more people die, and that won't happen if you stand there, are sarcastic and yell at me!"

"Well, we won't figure it out if you start working on it with the thought that I did it!" Pat heatedly replied, crossing her arms over her chest and letting out a snort when Willow tried to tell her that this wasn't the case.

"And you want me to believe that?" she then demanded to know, another snort coming from her when Willow could do was stare at her in reply, asking herself when this had gotten so out of hand and how she was supposed to bring this back on track.

"I have enough of this", Pat now let her know, her voice going back to a level more fitting for indoors, but still sounding angry, "and I don't need to listen to this. I'm outta here."

"Where are you going?" Willow demanded to know, startled at this unexpected turn of the talk; for a moment, she wasn't sure she'd even get an answer, then Pat gave her another glare, her voice full of contempt when she replied. "I'll go and find the one who did this, I'll beat him up and then I'll drop him at your feet. Maybe you'll believe then that it wasn't me."

"Sweetie, no, wait", the witch tried to stop her, even reaching out and grasping her arm; to her shock, the demon shook her off and gave her another glare, then stormed off before she had the chance to reply anything, the apartment door slamming shut behind her just a few seconds later.


	12. Chapter 12

When the phone rang, Buffy momentarily was overjoyed, hoping it would be someone who'd talk to her for hours and thus keep her busy; Dawn still was at school, and she had cleaned the house as much as she had been able to in her still weakened state, having spent the hours since then on the couch watching TV, commenting the events on the screen and lamenting to herself about how much the programme sucked.

When she saw on the display that the caller was Willow, her joy grew even further, even though she briefly wondered why the redhead would call her now, at a time when she was supposed to be at college; then, she shrugged it off and took the call, her happiness about it clearly showing through her voice when she greeted her best friend.

"Hello Willow, I'm so glad you're calling", she started to talk right after taking the call, not even giving her friend the tiniest chance to say something, "I'm bored out of my mind here, Dawn's still at school and the TV programme sucks! I tried cleaning but…"

The sniffle which finally came through the line made her fall silent, and momentarily, her eyes went wide; then, mentally scolding herself for being so inconsiderate and just talking Willow into the ground when clearly, the witch was upset about something, she asked what was wrong, her eyes widening again at the redhead's answer.

"I had a fight with Pat, and now she left", Willow sniffled, sounding as if she either was already crying or was very close to tears, "it all went wrong Buffy…"

"Tell me what happened", the Slayer replied, giving her best to sound soothing; in response, Willow let out another sniffle, then started talking, starting at the beginning with the murder of Jane and mentioning everything which had been on her mind since then, from the button to the smell of smoke and the hair that had been at the place where the last victim had been killed.

"That doesn't look all too good for her", Buffy thoughtfully gave back, not liking the thought that maybe, her friend was the one responsible for those gruesome murders, but having to admit that Willow had presented a lot of evidence which couldn't just be ignored.

"I know", the witch gave back, now sounding a bit calmer, to Buffy's relief, "but she got so mad when I tried to talk to her about it… And I'm quite sure that she lied to me when I asked her if anything strange happened to her during patrol since those killings started…"

"Did she say where she's going when she left?" the Slayer wanted to know in reply, frowning at Willow's answer, the redhead sounded worried again when she told her best friend that Pat had gone out to find the one who was behind the murders.

"That might end badly", she muttered as soon as Willow had finished talking, "if it's not her, but some other demon with similar or even the same powers, it might be hard for her to take him on alone…"

"Yeah", Willow sighed her agreement, "that's why I'm worried… What if she gets hurt, or something worse…?"

"Can't you do a spell to find out where she is?" Buffy wanted to know in reply, then jumped back from the phone in shock as a slapping sound came through the line, only to giggle as she realized a second later what had happened.

"I can't believe I didn't think of that", Willow's voice drifted through the line again a second later, prompting the Slayer to hold the receiver to her ear again, "how stupid!"

Momentarily, she felt like slapping her forehead again when Buffy giggled, then tried to calm her down by telling her that she was upset and that thus, it was understandable that she hadn't been able to come up with that thought; afterwards, the blonde offered her best friend to come over, smiling slightly when immediately, Willow expressed concern for her well-being and asked her if she was sure that this was a good idea.

"Come on", she then gave her best to convince the redhead that it was okay, "your place is not that far from mine, and even if I'm still weakened from that stupid poison, there's no way I'll let you go and look for your girlfriend alone, especially not if she's right and already found the one who's responsible for this. I'll be there in twenty, okay?"

"Alright", the witch agreed after a moment, still not sure if this was a good idea; then, she figured that Buffy had made a point though and that, if there really was an unknown third party responsible for the murders, it would be dangerous to go and find them alone, no matter how good she was with spells by now – if something should have happened to Pat by the time they'd find her, she knew that there was a great chance that she'd be too distracted by concern and worry to focus on her magic properly.

"See you in a few then", she thus added, making Buffy agree before she said her goodbye and ended the call; sighing to herself, Willow did the same, putting the phone down on the table before she made herself as comfortable as she could in the current situation, counting the minutes as she waited for Buffy to arrive.

* * *

At the same time, Pat took the time to finish her cigarette before she entered the bar where she was sure she'd get the information she wanted; she knew that it wasn't exactly smart to go there, not with her reputation in this town, but this was the only place she'd been able to think of.

To her relief, the bar was as empty as she had expected it to be so early in the afternoon; she briefly looked around, seeing just one guy in a booth at the far end who didn't pay attention to her at all, then moved up to the counter where Willy was cleaning classes, looking up as she approached him, his eyes briefly widening in surprise.

"Quite brave of you to come here", he then greeted, displaying a surprising amount of guts – the last time she had been here, she had beaten him up to get the information she had wanted, and by the time she had been done, he almost had been willing to kiss her feet. "You're lucky the place is so empty. What'cha want?"

"Answers", Pat gave back, stopping at the counter, not sitting down though, frowning at the barkeeper's reply. "No answers without an order. So what'cha want?"

"Give me a beer", the demon sighed out after a moment; she knew that technically, she already could start beating him up, but on the other hand, he also might give her the information she wanted without a need for violence, the black haired woman figuring that he still remembered the beating he had gotten the last time quite well.

Smirking, Willy bent down to one of the fridges and got out a beer bottle, removing the cap before he put it down in front of her, then went back to cleaning the glasses, looking at her with a raised eyebrow as he waited for her to ask him what she wanted to know. Before she did so though, Pat lit up a cigarette and took a large gulp of the beer; she briefly grimaced at the taste, wondering how long it had been in that fridge already, then shrugged it off and looked at the barkeep again, keeping her voice down as she asked what she had come here for, not wanting the guy in the corner booth to hear her. "You heard anything 'bout a new guy in town? Flamey, like me?"

"Maybe I did", Willy gave back, smiling a toothy grin at her, her good eye narrowing as she realized what would come next. "Maybe I did after you… helped my memory along, if you know what I mean."

"Maybe I'll just beat you up again until you talk", Pat snarled, not willing to take this any further – her mood was sour enough after that fight she'd had with Willow, and she wasn't eager to play Willy's idiotic little games.

"Oh, but that would be tiring for you, and painful for me", Willy now gave back, putting the glass he had been cleaning down on the counter with surprising force, "it'd be much easier if you'd just give me… Hmm… Let's see…"

"Just tell me how much you want", Pat snapped, putting out her cigarette while she waited for him to answer; to her dismay, he didn't do so, but just kept cleaning another glass, taking his sweet time with doing so before he put it down just as forcefully as the previous one, finally speaking up while he reached for the third one.

"Hmmm", he made again, "let me think… Maybe a twenty will help a tiny bit, but a fifty would be even more convincing… You know, with Buffy and you going around and killing all my customers, business has been kinda slow lately, so…"

His gaze flickered from her face to a point over her left shoulder, and all at once, the demon realized what he had been doing – he had been keeping her busy and distracted, giving someone the chance to sneak up on her, something made considerably easier by her blind side.

Snarling a curse, she spun around, too slow and too late though; she still had a moment to see the beer bottle come down, then it shattered against her head, glass flying everywhere. Stumbling back against the bar, she grasped for the wood for some support, fighting hard to stay on her feet and to stay conscious; the man who had attacked her let out a low growl, clearly angered about the fact that he hadn't managed to knock her out with the first hit.

Behind her, she could hear how Willy ducked behind the counter, snapping at her attacker to get done quickly; with a snarl, she brought her fists up, glad that at least, he had smashed the bottle against the left side of her head and that thus, no blood was getting into her eye and blinding her.

Unlike most other opponents she had fought, this guy didn't bother to say anything, not even letting out the tiniest sound as he blocked her first two punches, then stopped the third one by catching her fist; his foot shot forward, painfully connecting with her knee, the demon letting out a low grunt of pain as the kick landed.

Once more fighting to stay on her feet, she somehow managed to duck the punch that followed the kick, only to realize that this had been a mistake when a second later, his knee came up, crashing right into her face and sending her to the ground.

Groaning, Pat rolled over as fast as she could, coming up on her hands and knees, fighting hard once more to stay conscious, her sight blurring; then, the barstool came down on her back, then on her head, finally knocking her out, the last thing she heard before darkness engulfed her being the slight chuckle Willy let out from behind the counter.


	13. Chapter 13

Pat had no idea how long she had been out cold, but when she woke up again, the first thing she noticed was how much her head hurt, making her grit her teeth as she sat up, looking around as she tried to figure out where she was.

To her dismay, the room she was in wasn't any place she ever had seen before; there were no windows to let her see the surroundings of the house it was in, and she was sure that the only door she could spot would be locked.

"Well, at least it's made of wood", she mumbled to herself while she came to her feet, steadying herself against the wall; she took a moment to make sure that she wouldn't end up flat on her back again, then moved over to the door, pressing her ear against it and listening for any noise that might show her if someone was waiting in the next room to knock her out the moment she'd step through what she'd leave of the door.

When she couldn't hear anything, she smirked to herself, wondering if whoever had knocked her out and had taken her here had underestimated the time it would take her to get back on her feet; then, she let both hands flame up and started working on the door, the wood catching fire a minute later.

"There we go", the demon muttered to herself, her smirk widening as she stepped back from the door and waited for the fire she had started to finish the job; it didn't take long until a hole big enough to let her step through had been burned into the wood, and she quickly moved out of the room, looking left and right, her fists clenched as she anticipated another attack any moment.

Momentarily, she was relieved when none came, and she simply found herself in a long, empty hallway; the world had stopped spinning around her, but she still felt slightly dizzy, making her wonder how hard exactly that last blow had been and if it wouldn't be wiser to demon out so any possible damage could be healed. Deciding that it wouldn't be smart to meet the one who had taken her in her current state, she stopped walking and took in a deep breath, closing her eye as her body changed; as always, it didn't take long until the transformation was done, sharp fangs glistening in the flickering light her flames provided as she smirked to herself when she felt all wounds close and vanish.

Remaining in that form for now, Pat kept making her way down the hallway, after a few steps thinking of toning her flames down until they went out, not wanting to alert anyone who might be around with their flickering light; using skills she had gained during centuries of assassinating people, she moved to the door at the hallway's end without sound, even her breath so quiet that no one would be able to hear it unless they stood right beside her.

To her dismay, the door at the end of the hallway wasn't made of wood like the one before, but of solid steel; preparing herself for the disappointment, she grabbed the handle and pushed it down, surprised when the door swung open a moment later, revealing yet another, bigger room, this one nicely furnished, the demon able to see a table and the back of a comfortable looking leather armchair from where she stood, the sound of a fire burning somewhere in the room reaching her ears.

Automatically clenching her fists, Pat stepped into the room, all senses on their highest possible level now; still though, her left side remained as blind as always, and thus she couldn't stop herself from flinching when the voice came from that side. "There you are at last, and all furry, too."

Snarling, she spun to face the man who had spoken, quickly recognizing him as the one who had knocked her out; she brought up her fists, but to her surprise, he just smirked, making no move to attack her, just remaining next to the fireplace and even turning away from her so he could add another log of wood to the flames.

"I like it warm", he then let her know in a perfectly normal friendly tone, as if he hadn't beaten her up not all too long ago, "I'm sure you agree, even though you're lacking your fire right now. Why don't you go back to your… less hairy form?"

When she didn't react at once, he chuckled and shook his head, folding his hands behind his back and giving her a smile he probably had intended to be charming; thanks to the fact that his teeth were quite uneven and seemed too large for his mouth, this didn't work as he had wanted it to, the demon looking rather nonplussed.

"No worries, Pat – I can call you Pat, right? – I'm not eager to hurt you", he went on when Pat remained the way she was, giving her another wide grin, raising both hands as if to underline his words, "and I truly regret that I had to hurt you back in that bar. I honestly didn't expect you to find me so quickly."

After another moment of silence, the demon finally responded by shifting back to her human form, still eying the man carefully; he smirked, then gestured at the armchair, asking her if she wanted to sit down.

"No", Pat gave back at once, "for some reason I don't quite understand, you seem to think that this is a social call, but it's not. You killed those people, and I'm here to take you out."

"You're here because I took you here", the man replied, unimpressed, "and honestly, I wish this hadn't been necessary. I just would've needed one more, then I would've had all I came here for and would have left."

"All you came here for?" the black haired woman repeated, raising an eyebrow; still smirking, the man took his time to answer, digging through his pockets first until he found a pack of cigarettes, the demon frowning slightly when she saw him light one of them up the way she usually did when no one who didn't know about her nature was around to see her.

"Yup", he then finally gave back, after blowing a cloud of smoke towards the ceiling, "I've been doing this for a long time, you know. Two girls and two guys in every town where I stop… and if you've ever burned a human alive, you know what I need."

"I have no idea what you are talking about", Pat icily replied, fighting down the urge to light up a cigarette as well, not wanting to give him the feeling that she wasn't still ready and eager to take him out.

"I'm shocked", the man now stated, not sounding very shocked though, raising an eyebrow as well as he spoke on. "You really never did that? You definitely should. They give off these wonderful waves of fear and pain and terror, it's so refreshing."

"You're one sick puppy", Pat let him know, crossing her arms over her chest, raising an eyebrow again when he let out a chuckle in reply.

"We're two sick puppies then", he informed her, laughing once more when all she could do was stare at him in reply. "You didn't notice yet?" he went on after a moment, running his free hand through his messy, bright red hair, "you and me, we're one of a kind. I have a more furry appearance too, you know. The only big difference is that I haven't been tamed by some random chick, but other than that, we're like brother and sister."

He laughed at the shocked expression on the demon's face, then finished his cigarette and threw it into the fireplace, immediately lighting up another one.

"I'm nothing like you", Pat finally regained her ability to speech, pressing the words out between grit teeth, "and if you mention my girlfriend once more, I'll quit the talking and start the punching."

"Wow, protective, are we", the man replied, "and that even though you've had such a nasty fight. Sorry about that, but thanks to your presence, that's one of the few towns where I can do my thing without needing to worry about anyone trying to interrupt, I'm sure you'll make up soon."

"How did you do it?" the demon demanded to know in reply, glaring at the guy, annoyed when he laughed again, then raised his hands and gave her another one of his horribly non-charming smiles.

"Just a bit of magic", he then let her know, "a little sleeping spell I used on you so I could get what I needed. Sorry I had to mess your hair."

Snarling, Pat gave him another glare, now cursing herself for not telling her friends about the fact that every night someone had been killed, she'd fallen asleep on patrol for at least an hour; she hadn't been able to believe that this would happen to her back then, but now, it all made perfect sense.

"I think we've talked enough", she pressed out between grit teeth, clenching her fists, "it's time to take you out."

"I don't think so", the man replied, his smile suddenly changing, not charming anymore, but malicious, his eyes glinting the same way as he went on. "You know, I was hoping we'd team up and wreck havoc together, but that chick really put a leash on you, huh? Too bad… But I'm afraid you don't know the whole picture yet."

Even though she wasn't sure she wanted to know, Pat couldn't help herself, but had to give him a questioning look; in reply, his smirk widened – before he stepped to yet another door close to the fireplace and opened it, the black haired woman's good eye going wide when she saw what had been hidden behind it.

In the middle of the tiny room the door led to, a room which probably had been intended as a storage room when the house had been built, a chair had been put up; and on that chair, Buffy half sat, half hung, held on it by the thick ropes which had been wrapped around her upper body and legs, her hands bound behind the chair's backrest.

"She came here even though she's not in the best shape", the guy informed the shocked demon helpfully, "seems as if she caught on to me, as well, too bad. And too bad for her that she's been sick or something, it was really easy to take her out… Knocking out the Slayer will give me extra cred among my peers, ya know?"

He laughed, then grew serious again within a single moment, the malicious glint entering his eyes again as he spoke on. "And you know what's really interesting? She didn't come here alone… Probably thought some magic would provide a proper backup for her weakened friend…"

"Where is she?" Pat pressed out, fighting down the urge to just rush at the guy and break his neck, something which became considerably harder when her opponent let out another chuckle as an answer.

"Wouldn't you love to know that", he then teased, "but it'd be boring if I'd just tell you where the holder of your leash is, right? And if she's even still alive… Maybe I killed her already."

Those words, and the nasty, buck-toothed grin on the man's face, were enough to take all of the demon's self-control away; with a loud growl, she launched forward, bringing up her fists as she let her rage take over, eager to finish this once and for all.


	14. Chapter 14

When she had started the attack, Pat had been sure that, fuelled by her anger and her fear for Willow, it'd be over quickly; to her shock though, the man was faster than she had expected, easily ducking her first punch and blocking her second one – before grabbing the front of her shirt and, with surprising strength, threw her away from himself, a low grunt escaping her when she hit the table in the middle of the room and it broke beneath her.

"You owe me a new table", the man smirked, already moving forward again; he didn't even gave her the chance to get up again, throwing her flat on her back again by kicking her right in the face, his smile widening when he heard a bone break.

"That must have hurt", he commented, taking a step back and watching how Pat came to her feet, chuckling when in response to his words, she growled and let her fists flame up.

"I would have thought you're smarter than that", he then commented, flames beginning to flicker on his hands as well, "you of all people should know that you can't fight fire with fire."

"I'm aware of that", the demon snarled, ignoring the taste of blood in her mouth, "but I can fight you with my fists."

"What are you waiting for then?" he wanted to know, smiling as his flames spread; unlike Pat usually did when she let her fire spread over her whole body though, he didn't bother to control it, the carpet he was standing on quickly catching fire as well.

"I would have thought you're smarter than that", Pat mocked him, now smirking as well, "you don't think that your pyromaniac tendencies will scare me, right?"

"Oh, they won't scare _you_", the guy gave back, "I'm disappointed you're not thinking any farther. You know, whenever I find a lair in my town of choice, I make sure it's very flammable… in case people like you come here to bother me. Or people like your little girlfriend… Oooh, I forgot, she's not as immune to fire as you are, right? And neither is the pretty blonde in that little room over there…"

At hearing this, Pat had to bite her tongue to keep down the curse that wanted to escape her; laughing again, the man raised his hands and made a quick gesture, the demon's good eye going wide again when the flames grew higher and spread much faster than they should, her heartbeat speeding up when she realized that unlike her, he could not only set himself on fire at will, but also had the ability to control the flames all around him.

"You'll understand that I'm not willing to get killed", he casually told her, twirling his fingers and causing the fire to spread even further, making her wonder how much of the house was on fire by now, "so I'll have to distract you with making you save your friend and your girlfriend while I take my leave. Maybe we'll meet again."

With those words, he performed a short bow, then gave the black haired woman another smile while he got out his cigarettes and lit one of them up on the flames dancing all around him; and then, he turned and vanished through the door while Pat, realizing that she couldn't risk it to follow him and maybe let Buffy or Willow get hurt, only could snarl to herself, anger filling her once more as she realized how he had outwitted her.

Forcing herself to push those thoughts aside, she told herself that she could find and kill that guy later on, after she had successfully gotten Buffy and Willow outside, into safety; quickly, she hurried over to the room where the Slayer had been put, the blonde to her relief groaning and stirring weakly when she started to work on the bonds that held her on the chair.

"Wake up", Pat tried to hurry the process along, "come on Buffy, no time to nap now, unless you wanna get really crispy."

"What's going on…?" Buffy brought out in reply, forcing her eyes open, even though it clearly cost her a lot of strength; moments later, a coughing fit shook her, the room filled with smoke by now, her eyes tearing up as she stared at the demon. "What…"

"You have to get out of here", Pat gave back, grabbing her around the waist and helping her up from the chair, "I'll explain later. Do you know where he took Willow?"

"The red-haired guy…?" Buffy half asked, half realized as an answer, grabbing the taller woman's arm to steady herself while she was almost dragged to the nearest window, giving her best to ignore the way the world was blurring around her as she tried to remember what had happened after she had come here with the witch.

"He knocked me out", she mumbled, her free hand coming up to feel the back of her head, a bolt of pain shooting through her brain from the bump there, "I don't know what he did to Willow…"

"How big is this house?" Pat demanded to know, trying to hide how much hearing those words was upsetting her; in response, Buffy briefly squeezed her eyes shut, then mumbled

"Two floors", forcing the demon to hold back another curse as she realized that this would double or maybe even triple the time it'd take her to find her girlfriend.

"Get outside", she almost ordered as soon as she could be sure that she wouldn't let out a string of curses the moment she'd open her mouth, "and wait there, but not right in front of the building, move to the other side of the street or something okay? I'll find Willow and get her out."

"Alright", Buffy agreed at once, to the demon's relief; normally, the Slayer would have started a discussion now, and explain that she wanted to help, but obviously, she was in no shape to do so, and clearly was aware of that as well.

Quickly, Pat opened the window, then grasped the smaller woman at the waist and lifted her up until she could place one foot on the windowsill; steadying her to make sure she wouldn't fall, the taller woman only let go of her once she had moved one leg over the windowsill and had planted it firmly on the ground, once more telling her to put some distance between the burning house and herself before she turned away from the window, her heart and mind racing as she tried to figure out how much time she still had before the building would come down – and if it would be enough to find her girlfriend and get her to safety, the demon knowing she'd never be able to forgive herself if she'd fail and Willow would end up getting hurt or something much, much worse.

* * *

To Pat's dismay, the house was even bigger than she had feared, and by now, the flames apparently had spread all over it; this briefly made her wonder how powerful exactly that man was, and where he had learned to control all kinds of flames like that – before she told herself that she had other things to worry about now, giving her best to overtone the roaring of the flames as she shouted her girlfriend's name.

"Willow!" she tried again when no answer came, cold sweat breaking out all over her body when the only thing she could hear was the crackling of the fire; telling herself not to freak out, she opened the next door and found herself in the kitchen, once more yelling for the witch while she made her way through it, to the door at the other end of the surprisingly large room.

"Goddammit", she mumbled to herself when once more, all she could hear was the crackling of the spreading fire; moments later, she jumped as a big portion of the ceiling came down behind her, her heart beating up to her throat as she realized that this was only the beginning and that soon, the rest of the house would follow.

Now not bothering anymore to hold back her curses, she let out a whole collection of them as she hurried through the door and to the stairway; there, she called out for Willow again, clenching her fists when once more, no response could be heard.

"Come on, don't do this to me", she then muttered, almost running up the stairs, hoping that they wouldn't go down beneath her – she wasn't in any danger of getting hurt by the flames, but falling on a pile of wood and metal was just as dangerous for her as it was for anyone else, and she couldn't afford it to lose time by getting hurt.

"_Willow_!" she tried again the moment she reached the top of the stairs, looking left and right, not sure where to go; before she could make up her mind though, a low thumping noise reached her ears, her breath momentarily getting caught in her throat – before she shouted for her girlfriend again, relief practically exploding within her when the noise came again, weaker, but audible.

Turning to the right, from where the noise had came from, Pat sped down the hallway, trying to figure out how far away the sound had been when she had heard it the first time; then, she realized that there was a much easier way to find out, calling the redhead's name once more, her relief growing even bigger when the noise came again from the end of the hallway, everything else forgotten as she rushed to the door there, hoping and praying that they still would have enough time to get out of the house before it would succumb to the flames and come down.

* * *

Willow already had realized that it had been a mistake to come to this place when the strangely jolly redheaded man had knocked Buffy out so easily, a realization that only had been confirmed when right afterwards, he had somehow warded off the spell she had thrown at him and had moved up to her with shocking speed, knocking her out just as effortlessly as he had done it with Buffy.

Then, when she had woken up in this tiny, dark room, after being unconscious for God knew how long, she at first had been relieved that at least, she hadn't been killed; on the other hand, she'd had no idea what this strange man planned on doing to her, and when the smoke had started to pour in through the thin slit between the locked door of the room and the wooden floor, she had realized that maybe, she'd never find out.

Gradually, the room had become hotter and hotter as the fire outside had been spreading all over the house; at first, she had tried to open the door, with magic and then, when that didn't work, with violence, but nothing had succeeded, the only effect being that her hands hurt from banging against the wood.

The fact that the small room had filled up with smoke quite fast hadn't made thinking clearly for her easier, either; she had tried to avoid getting too much smoke into her lungs by pulling her sweater up to cover her mouth and nose, but that had just taken away a minimum of the smoke she had been inhaling, her head swimming and coughing fits shaking her shortly after the fire had started.

This had been the moment when she had realized that maybe, she'd die in this tiny room, either from the smoke or due to the fire; it hadn't burned through the door at this point, but the wood was uncomfortably hot, making the already heated room even hotter as well, all of this pushing her close to panic, her mind racing as she tried to figure out a way to get out of there, her fear and terror keeping her from forming a single proper thought. Even though she had been close to death several times before, this had been the first time that she'd been so helpless in such a situation; she'd kept telling herself that she had to calm down and figure something out, her own coughing disrupting her thoughts again and again though, once more forcing to realize that maybe, this was the end for her and that she'd not get out of this, that this time, there would be no Buffy arriving with blazing guns – figuratively – to rescue her from harm.

And then, she'd heard Pat call out for her, barely able to believe her ears; by then, she'd been too weak and hoarse to shout back, and thus just had kicked the door, repeating it when she heard her partner shout her name again, her voice much closer this time, convincing her that she really had heard it and that it hadn't been some kind of hallucination, brought by her fear of dying in this tiny, hot, smoke-filled room.

"Get back from the door!" the demon's voice now came through the wood, the witch closing her eyes in relief as she did what she had been told to; moments later, the door was kicked open and banged against the wall, and then, Pat was there, kneeling down next to her and gathering her into her arms, mumbling soothing and reassuring words. Clutching the taller woman's shirt with the little bit of strength she had left, Willow tried to tell her how sorry she was that she had suspected her of being the one responsible for the killings, how glad she was that she had come and how much she loved her; all that left her throat were a few weak coughs though, prompting the demon to tell her that she shouldn't try to talk before she went back to reassuring her that everything would be fine and that she'd get her outside and into the fresh air.

Coughing again, all Willow could do was nod weakly, then let her head come to a rest on her girlfriend's shoulder; while she was carried over to the stairs, she fought hard to keep her eyes open, telling herself that she had to stay conscious, that it was dangerous to fall unconscious after breathing in so much smoke, her head swimming as she looked at the inferno all around her and Pat, the last ounces of strength leaving her as her arms slumped down, fear once more filling her at how far away the front door seemed to be, making her wonder if the demon hadn't been too late after all and if she'd die in there anyway, no matter if her girlfriend was with her now or not.


	15. Chapter 15

Only when she'd been outside for a while and had had time to clear her head, Buffy had fully realized that the house where she'd been held captive was on fire, burning from the ground floor to the roof by now; she flinched when several windows burst due to the heat, feeling sick when she saw the inferno that was raging inside the house, a cold feeling of dread filling her.

If there was one thing she truly hated, it were those moments when, despite being the Slayer, she could do nothing to improve the situation; she knew that, even if she still wasn't weakened by the poison that nearly had killed her, there wouldn't have been anything she could have done – being the Slayer gave her extra strength, speed and stamina, along with faster healing than normal people had, but it didn't keep her from poisoning herself with smoke or from getting burned.

Helplessly, all she could do was watch how the fire kept eating away at the house, her heart beating up to her throat as she tried to convince herself that both Pat and Willow would be fine and that they would make it outside in time; she knew that the flames couldn't harm the demon, but that Willow was just as vulnerable to them as anyone else – and once the house would break down, not even being a demon would keep Pat from getting hurt.

"Come on", she whispered, her eyes never leaving the burning building, "step through that door right now and be fine… Come on, please…"

For a moment, she nearly felt like folding her hands and sent a prayer to the Heavens; before she could do so though, the door suddenly got blown outwards as something inside exploded, the Slayer automatically jumping a few feet back, even though she had been standing far away enough to make sure nothing of the debris which now flew through the air would harm her. Feeling awfully helpless, all she could do was stand there and stare at the now ruined doorway, the flames flickering behind it looking awfully high to her; a sudden turn of the wind swept a gust of hot air towards her, so hot that momentarily, she was sure her eyebrows had been singed, and she briefly closed her eyes, suddenly sure that no one could make it out of there alive, not even a demon as old and experienced with fire as Pat.

"Please", she mumbled, without even fully noticing that she was talking out loud, "come on, come outside… Come on…"

For a few moments, she even considered going in there herself, even though she knew it would be suicide; and then, she spotted the tall silhouette appearing in the midst of the flames, her heart leaping up to her throat as she watched how Pat made her way through the fire, carrying Willow in her arms, the witch not moving, but to Buffy's relief not appearing hurt or burnt, either.

Now throwing all thoughts about her own safety overboard, Buffy hurried closer to the house, then stopped when she felt the heat of the flames on her face; briefly, she wondered how Pat had managed to keep Willow from getting burned, then shrugged it off as the demon stepped outside, quickly moving away from the house and towards her, still clutching the redhead tightly.

"Why are there no firemen?" she demanded to know, a question Buffy hadn't expected at all; all she could do was stare in reply, asking herself if she had heard correctly, realizing that she had when the black haired woman gave her an impatient glance as she waited for an answer.

"Willow's breathed in a lot of smoke, she needs oxygen", she then elaborated when Buffy remained silent, "firemen have oxygen with them, but there are no firemen, even though there is a fire, so… Why are there no firemen?"

"I guess no one called them", Buffy finally regained her speech, now focusing on the redhead Pat still was holding in her arms, "we should get her to the hospital…"

Before the demon could reply to that suggestion, the sound of sirens came up in the distance; Buffy and she looked at each other, then the taller woman carefully lowered Willow onto the ground, crouching down next to her and grasping her hand while Buffy observed that clearly, someone had bothered to call the firemen, looking around as if she could spot the one who had done so.

"Let's hope they have oxygen", she then added, looking down on her best friend; again, she briefly wondered how Pat had managed to keep her from getting even the tiniest burn, then the fire engine rounded the corner and stopped in front of the burning house with screeching tires, a surprisingly large number of firemen jumping out of it seconds later and hurrying to unroll their large hose, two of them making their way to the three and asking them if they were okay, forcing the demon to hold back a snarky remark about the barely conscious woman right next to her.

Moments later, one of them clearly noticed that it had been a rather stupid thing to ask and ran back to the fire engine to get the oxygen; the second fireman remained where he was, asking if they knew anything about how the fire started, to their relief obviously buying it when they all shook their heads, only commenting about how such old buildings often tended to go up in flames thanks to faulty wiring or other, equally silly reasons, completely missing the relieved look Buffy and Pat exchanged.

* * *

Fifteen minutes later, Willow already was sitting upright again, albeit leaning against a tree, the oxygen mask still on her face, the fireman who briefly stopped next to her reminding her to breathe slowly and deeply, clearly surprised about how fast she had recovered from what had looked like a pretty serious condition when they had arrived.

What none of them knew was that, the moment they had all been focusing on the fire, Pat had convinced the witch to do the spell which let her borrow her healing powers; if any of the firemen had noticed that the tall, one-eyed woman now had more cuts and bruises than she'd had when they had arrived, no one of them mentioned it, just as no one said a word about the fact that the redhead looked much better than she should, even after fifteen minutes of breathing oxygen.

"I feel bad now", the redhead mumbled as soon as the fireman had left again to help his comrades with putting out the fire, "now you look as if someone beat you up really bad."

"Well, that guy did", Pat had to admit, briefly grimacing as speaking brought up fresh pain in her now re-broken nose, "he's really fast, which is quite annoying. I'm just glad I didn't shout when all that healing came undone, that would have attracted the attention of those firemen for sure."

"Yup", Buffy agreed, "and you can also be glad none of them happened to look over while Willow did the spell, or they would have aimed that hose on you to put out the fire on your hand."

"What a bad mental image", Pat muttered, holding back the urge to feel her nose, hating how it felt as if it was three times as big as it was supposed to be by now, but knowing that touching it only would make it hurt worse – and that more pain would be added when either Willow or Buffy would slap her hand and tell her to leave it alone.

"Think we can go already?" the Slayer wanted to know after a few seconds of silence, "or would it be too suspicious?" With those words, she gestured at Willow, who still was breathing from the oxygen mask; she shrugged, then nodded, removing the mask, not surprised when immediately, a fireman came running over and asked her what she was doing.

"I feel fine", she told him, the strength of her voice and healthy facial colour making it obvious that she was telling the truth, "thanks for helping me, but I can go home now…"

"I guess it must have looked worse than it was when we came here", the young man replied, even though he did sound a bit doubtful; giving him a charming smile, Willow nodded, then came to her feet, holding back the urge to wince when the fireman looked at Pat and asked her if she didn't want to go to the hospital.

"You look as if someone beat you up, Lady", he added, eying her and the blood which had dried on her face, raising an eyebrow when she shook her head.

"I'm fine", she then told him, "thanks for your concern."

"Uh-huh", the fireman let out in reply, didn't say anything else though; he just gave the taller woman another curious look, then hurried back to his comrades, none of them even giving them another look as they left, suddenly more than eager to get back home.

* * *

"Ow, goddammit, fuck!" the demon cursed half an hour later, prompting Buffy to cover Dawn's ears with an exaggerated gesture, Pat just letting out another curse when Willow gave her a strict look, then reprimanded her with the usual "Language" – even though she understood the cursing this time, knowing how much iodine burned in open wounds, even if they were just small cuts.

"I don't even know why you insist on doing that", the black haired woman complained, giving her best to not flinch back when the witch dabbed the rather deep cut right above her eyebrow with the iodine-soaked cotton ball, "in a few hours, I can heal all that anyway!"

"Because there's no need to take any extra risk", Willow helpfully informed her in reply, "seeing how that guy beat you up, even your healing will have a hard time with taking proper care of that, you know it doesn't work on all wounds if there are too many of them…"

"Thanks for reminding me of how that asshole beat me up", Pat sarcastically gave back, then flinched after all when the cotton ball moved to yet another cut, another curse escaping her, her mood not helped by how Willow mumbled "Language" again.

"Is he that strong?" Buffy demanded to know, finally giving in to Dawn's tugging at her hands and removing them from her sister's ears, frowning when the demon sighed, then nodded, sounding glum when she replied.

"He is, and as if that wasn't bad enough, he's fast, too. And to make it even worse" – at this point, Buffy interrupted her with a groan, the demon raising an eyebrow at her, something which brought her a dirty look from her girlfriend since she nearly had ended up putting the iodine-soaked cotton ball into her eye thanks to that unexpected expression – "he's got more control over fire than I ever heard of. He just burst into flames when he realized I wouldn't team up with him and let them spread, and then made all those dramatic gestures to make them bigger."

"Team up with him?" Dawn echoed, giving the taller woman a shocked look, "he wanted you to team up with him?"

"Yup", Pat sighed, then her good eye lit up as she looked at Willow, sounding strangely proud when she went on. "And he told me how he framed me for those killings! He used a spell to make me fall asleep on patrol. See? I told you it wasn't me!"

"And I'm sorry for not believing you", Willow immediately gave back, looking regretful for a moment – before her expression became stern, the demon gulping audibly as she realized that she was in trouble now. "And he made you fall asleep on patrol? How come you never mentioned that? I asked you if something unusual happened on patrol and you said no!"

"Busted", Buffy commented, smiling innocently at the glare Pat gave her as an answer before she focused on Willow again, her expression immediately softening. "I know, and I'm sorry… I should have told you, but I was so angry at myself because that happened, and I couldn't figure it out! I didn't want to worry you."

"And you think I didn't worry when I thought you killed those people?" Willow demanded to know sharply, realizing that she had sounded harsher than she had intended when she noticed the look of surprise on her girlfriend's face, her gaze softening as well moments later.

"Sorry for snapping at you", she apologized, glad when her girlfriend's face lit up again as well, "and let's not fight again okay? That fight was bad enough to make me sick of it for another two to three years."

"Same here", Pat agreed at once, rolling her good eye when Buffy snorted, then shook her head, a hint of mischief in her voice when she spoke up. "That makes it sound as if you fight all the time, but you don't! That was the first real fight you had in years!"

"Well, I don't like it to fight with Willow", Pat stated the obvious, giving the Slayer another annoyed look, "I'd rather kick some vampire and demon asses, instead, it's more fun and it doesn't get me banned to the couch for the night."

"I never banned you to the couch", Willow immediately protested, "and Buffy's right, we hardly ever fight, anyway. Remember, the last time we fought before that incident last night was when Faith was here, and that wasn't even a real fight because you left before it could turn into one."

"So, we are one of the few couples who hardly ever fight", Pat shrugged, "I guess it's that way to make up for Xander and Anya, because they fight a lot. You wanna be like them?"

"Heavens, no", the redhead shuddered, giving her partner a startled look – before Buffy and Dawn started to giggle in perfect unison at her shocked expression, the witch and the demon joining their laughter a moment later, all talk about fights and how unpleasant they were forgotten as for a few rare moments, they all found themselves able to relax and ignore the current, still quite unpleasant situation.


	16. Chapter 16

"He'll go for one more", Pat let the other three know as soon as they all had calmed down again and Willow had finished treating her wounds, "he told me he always gets two girls and two guys, and I don't think he'll interrupt that routine just because we're on to him. Demons can be quite stuck in their routines, you know."

"Oh I know", the witch muttered, smiling innocently at the look Pat gave her, the demon then clearly shrugging it off since she cleared her throat and spoke on, the others listening with high interest. "As I said, I doubt he'll change that, but he won't be idle now, either, he'll probably try to get the second guy tonight, and then he'll move on to the next town. So, the big question is, how do we stop him?"

For a few moments, the room was unpleasantly silent; then, Buffy spoke up, making everyone else look at her, something she didn't notice though since her gaze was focused on Willow. "Can you locate him easier, now that you know what he looks like?"

"I don't know", the witch gave back after a moment of thinking about it, "or, better said, I'm not sure. Just knowing what he looks like might not be enough, it'd be better if I had something from him… Or knew his name."

"Too bad he introduce himself to me", Pat sighed, "which was very rude, now that I think about it. After all, he knew my name!"

"And too bad you didn't knock out some of his teeth and took them along", Dawn added, shrugging when the demon raised an eyebrow at her, then gestured at the redhead. "Willow could do the spell easily then, right?"

"Well, I didn't", Pat gave back, "I'm not one to collect teeth, you know? What should I do with them? Wear them as a necklace?"

"Ew, no", the Willow immediately protested, "don't you even think about that…" She trailed off and frowned to herself, a facial expression they all knew well – it was the look she got on her face when an idea was forming in her mind, and usually, those ideas were the good ones, the ones they needed when they were at a dead end.

"That house", she finally spoke up, breaking the breathless silence that had filled the room while the others had waited for her brain to finish the job, "he said it's his lair, right?"

"Well, it was", Pat shrugged, "seeing that it burned down, but… yeah, he called it that. Why?"

"We might find something there, something I can use", Willow let her know, briefly forcing the demon to hold back the urge to slap herself on the forehead for not thinking about that as well, "maybe even the ashes might work, I mean, he caused the fire that made them…"

"Makes sense", Pat had to admit, "so, we better get moving now, or we'll lose too much time." Nodding, Willow got up from her seat; when Buffy started to do the same, both the witch and the demon gave her such a strict look that she automatically sank back into her chair, reacting with confusion, not sure what this was supposed to mean.

"You are not coming along", Willow was the one to speak up and explain the look, "not after how that guy knocked you out. Maybe we'll be lucky and he'll have gone back there, something which I doubt, but you never know, and after how easily he took you down, it's too dangerous to take you along."

"I'm the Slayer!" Buffy protested immediately, even though she knew that her best friend was making a good point, "I'm supposed to be the one who takes guys like him out!"

"You're the Slayer, but a Slayer currently weakened from an evil poison", Pat answered that one, making it clear that she was fully on Willow's side about this, "and, no offense, but your presence might make the fight harder instead of easier, in case he knocks you out and we end up worrying about you, making it easier for him to knock us out. Even though I also doubt that he'll go back there, now that we know that this was his lair."

"So, you might as well let me come along", Buffy tried to argue, letting out a huff when both Willow and Pat shook their head in perfect unison.

"This is annoying", she let them know a moment later, "at first, you give me this annoyed look together and now you shake your heads together. Sooner or later, you'll start looking alike or something."

"Maybe I'll become taller", Willow thought out loud in reply, then returned to the topic at hand, namely the fact why Buffy couldn't come along with them. "But no matter how much we annoy you, you won't come along and that's final! Pat's right, the poison's still affecting you and he did knock you out not all too long ago, aren't you dizzy?"

"A bit", the Slayer sighed, realizing and accepting that, no matter what, the couple wouldn't give in, "so, fine, yeah, go alone. But be careful! Remember that he kicked your ass twice before, Pat."

"I won't forget that so fast, I feel it every time I move", the demon dryly gave back, glaring at the blonde when she received a triumphant look in reply.

"And still you wanna go there anyway", Buffy then argued, momentarily not so accepting of the facts anymore, "what if he kicks your ass again?"

"He won't", the black haired woman simply replied, clearly not willing to discuss this any further, "because by now, I know how fast he is, so I'll know how to handle him, and, by the way, now I also know why Dawn can be so insisting when she wants something and you tell her no. It runs in the family!"

"Hey!" Dawn and Buffy protested, making it their turn to speak in perfect unison; afterwards, they looked at each other in surprise while Willow and Pat just smirked, then told them they'd hopefully be back soon and left without giving them the chance to answer, Buffy pouting to herself as she leaned back into the couch and crossed her arms over her chest, once more annoyed at the assassin who was responsible for her current weakened state.

* * *

It didn't take long until the couple arrived at the house, and to their relief, the firemen had gotten done with their job and had returned to their headquarters; luckily, the fire hadn't spread to any other houses close to the one which had served as their opponent's lair, making the job of the firemen much easier and the fire less dangerous for the public than it could have been.

"I'm still peeved that he has so much control over his flames and I don't", Pat muttered while she approached the sad remains of the house with her girlfriend, "he said we're one of a kind, so how come he can do it and I can't?"

"Well, you're clearly not as much one of a kind as he thinks", Willow pointed out while she knelt down close to the remains of the front door and started going through the burnt pieces of wood and the clumps of ash, trying to figure out if this would be enough to find the demon, "because, well, you don't need to kill people to get your kicks, and you don't lock people up in tiny rooms to let them die in a fire. Plus, you're way cuter."

"Thanks", the demon smirked, crouching down next to her, "but I'd really like to know how he did it. It'd be awesome to learn that."

"I doubt he'll teach you", Willow gave back, briefly smiling at her before she focused on the debris again, "but, come on, you're good enough with handling your flames, I mean, you only burn what you wanna burn, right? There's no need for those fancy fire tricks he used."

"No, no real need for them, but it looked cool", Pat grumbled, then moved further into the ruins of the house, to her girlfriend's obvious dismay, images of falling building parts dancing around in Willow's mind while she quickly came to her feet again.

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" she called out, not daring to follow the black haired woman, her eyes wandering upwards to look at the blackened beams and the few pieces of ceiling which still where were they belonged, "what if something falls down and hits you?"

"I'll jump outta the way", Pat gave back, something Willow seriously doubted though, seeing how her girlfriend's gaze was focused on the floor and not on the dreadfully dangerous looking burned stuff right above her head.

"I'm not sure this is a good idea", she thus replied, "but I am pretty sure that the pieces of wood and the ash should be enough for the spell, so please come back here again?"

After a moment, the demon nodded and turned around; as she did so, the movement obviously upset something in the frail structure which was left of the house, and one of the beams came down, Willow letting out a shriek, her heart beating up to her throat even after Pat had jumped out of the way with a rather daring dive.

"See?" the black haired woman spoke up as soon as she could be sure nothing else would come down and try to bash her brains in, "told you I'd jump out of the way."

"If you don't come back here right now, I am banning you to the couch", Willow threatened as an answer, clearly not impressed by the fast reaction of her partner; Pat grimaced at her, then hurried up her steps, standing next to her a few seconds later.

"Here I am", she stated the obvious, "was that fast enough so I won't end up on the couch?"

"Yes", the witch smiled, going back to her usual calm behaviour now that Pat was out of harm's way, "and now let's go back home and see if that spell—"

Another beam came down and interrupted her noisily, making her fall silent – before she simply raised an eyebrow at her girlfriend and, without another word, turned to walk back to the Summers' home, Pat following her after a moment and giving her a sheepish grin, chuckling to herself when the witch just rolled her eyes, then grasped her hand as they walked back to the house, eager to find out if the wood and the ashes would be enough to find the one they were after.


	17. Chapter 17

Half an hour later, they all had assembled around the living room table in Buffy's house, Buffy, Pat and Dawn closely watching how Willow crumbled some of the wood she had taken from the burned house into the bowl the Slayer had provided for her, then added some of the ashes before she reached for the bag with the ingredients for the locator spell.

"Alright", she mumbled, carefully pouring some of the already crushed and mixed herbs into the bowl, on top of the wood and ashes, "in a minute, we'll know if this was a good idea. Sweetie?"

In reply, Pat leaned forward slightly and closer to the bowl, a tiny flame appearing on her index finger, an equally tiny ball of fire flying from there when she made a careless flicking gesture, landing in the middle of the ingredients and setting them on fire with a rather impressive _whoomp, _considering how small the flame had been.

"Map", Willow ordered, prompting Dawn to grab the map of Sunnydale she had readied and to spread it on the table; closing her eyes, the witch spread her hands over the paper, smiling slightly to herself as she felt the power of the magic surge through her, already knowing that it was working before she even had opened her eyes.

"It worked", Pat's voice came, confirming her knowledge further; nodding, she finally did look, her smile widening when she saw the single glowing dot on the map.

"Worked like a charm", she then let the others know, bending closer to the map to study the exact location.

"That's odd", she added after a moment, looking up at the others again, "according to this, he's at the old high school now. The one we blew up."

"Well, if you blew it up, there was a big fire, so naturally, he'd like it there", Pat pointed out, bending closer to the map as well, "honestly, I'm not very sur—"

Before she could finish, the glowing of the dot representing their opponent suddenly increased with surprising speed, heat rising from it; simultaneously, Willow and Pat jerked back from the map, just in time for the witch to avoid getting burned as the map suddenly caught fire.

"Fire!" Dawn shrieked, clearly forgetting the fact that someone who was immune to that particular element was right next to her; without missing a beat, Pat brought her flat hand down on the still rather small burning part, quenching the flames effortlessly before she gave the teenager an incredulous look.

"Warn me before you shriek like that the next time", she then dryly stated, pulling her hand back and revealing the hole which had been burned into the map, along with a scorch stain on the table which's sight made Buffy gasp, "because I think if I hear that too often, I'll go deaf."

"Sorry", Dawn apologized, blushing slightly and looking sheepish, "I forgot that fire's not a problem for you…"

"I noticed", Pat muttered, then looked at the burned map again with a raised eyebrow before her gaze moved up to focus on her girlfriend.

"Has that ever happened before?" she demanded to know, not really surprised when Willow shook her head, looking rather stunned as she stared at the map.

"Never", she then let the others know, still unable to take her eyes off the map, "do you think that was him? Does he know we're coming now?"

"Well, you're the witch", Pat reminded her, "is that possible?"

"I'm not sure", the witch sighed out after thinking about it for a few moments, "but, as far as I know, not really. Maybe it's some sort of general protection he put up against being found…"

"Well, it didn't help much then", the demon smirked, "because we know where he's hiding anyway so… Wanna go there right now?"

"I think you should", Buffy was the one to answer that, the way she phrased it making it clear that she wasn't planning on tagging along, to the obvious relief of both the witch and the demon, "as you said yourself, he'll only need one more victim, and he might not wait until nightfall this time, if he knows that we're after him."

"I doubt that", Pat gave back, speaking on and explaining herself when Buffy raised an eyebrow at her curiously. "It gives him a kick to kill with fire, he kinda… I dunno, I think he feeds on the fear and terror his victims give off when they die. It's not just that though, he enjoys fire, and during the day, well, it doesn't look as good. Less impressive than in the dark. So I think he'll wait."

"That's one sick guy", Willow stated, making the others nod; then, she rose from her seat, prompting her girlfriend to do the same, both of them nodding when Buffy asked if Pat wanted to borrow one of her weapons.

"I think I have one of those big axes you like so much", the Slayer let her know, "upstairs in my bedroom. I'll go get it."

"Okay!" the demon replied enthusiastically, making the blonde chuckle; rolling her eyes, she got up as well, then hurried upstairs while Willow grasped her girlfriend's hand and gave it a tender squeeze, her worry about the impending confrontation clearly showing on her face and through her eyes.

* * *

Once Buffy had gotten the axe from the weapon chest in her bedroom, the couple left the house together; as always when the Slayer wasn't around, Pat didn't bother to hide the weapon, the few people who dared to take a closer look glancing away again the moment they saw how big and sharp exactly the axe was and noticed the eyepatch and the cuts and bruises.

"One of these days, we'll get arrested", Willow commented, looking at the way her girlfriend openly paraded her weapon to the world with a raised eyebrow, giggling though at the demon's response. "Then we'll tell them we're one of those gangs on PCP, the ones they always blame for vampire victims. They'll run away screaming then."

"I hate to say this, but I'm afraid you're right", the witch had to admit after she had managed to stop laughing, "I hope it's not like that everywhere, but here, when it comes to anything supernatural, the police are kinda, well…"

"Useless?" Pat finished for her, smirking when after a moment, the witch nodded regretfully, her eyebrow wandering up again a second later when her girlfriend asked her if she could hold the axe for a moment so she could light up a cigarette.

"I'm not sure I can", she then gave back, choosing her words carefully, "that axe looks awfully… heavy. I don't wanna embarrass myself and end up dragged down to my knees by it."

"Aw, it's not that heavy", the demon reassured her, holding it out to her, "I carry it with one hand, see?"

"Yeah, but you have insane demon strength", the witch pointed out, then took the axe at last, letting out a huff at how heavy it was. Smirking at her, Pat hurried to light up her cigarette, then took the axe back from her partner; the few people on the street gave their best to ignore them as they kept making their way to the ruined high school, arriving there a short time later.

"I wonder where he's hiding", the demon commented, throwing her cigarette away, her grip on the axe tightening slightly; next to her, Willow shrugged, eying the blown up building, wondering if there actually were any places in there where someone could hide.

"In the cellar, maybe", she then stated, looking at her girlfriend, "I think that's the only place suitable to hide at. Everything else is too ruined."

"Agreed", the black haired woman said after thinking about this for a moment, "off we go then… But before we do, I wanna ask you for a favour."

"Sure, go ahead", Willow gave back, curious; moments later, she smiled as the taller woman replied, glad that her skills would be useful as well during the oncoming fight. "Can you do some slowing down spell or something on him? I really don't want him to kick my ass again. Oh, and some sort of protection on me against his little sleeping spell thing?"

"Well, the first thing will be easy", Willow gave back, frowning as she thought about the request of her partner, "but the second one might be hard, since I don't know which spell he's using… I can put some sort of general protection thingy on you though."

"That should do", Pat reassured her, "so, um… do I have to do anything?"

"No", the redhead smiled, once more amused about her girlfriend's lack of understanding when it came to magical things, considering the fact that she, as a demon, was naturally inclined to magic, sometimes making the witch wonder why she was so uninterested in it.

"Just hold still, alright?" she then added, briefly closing her eyes as she concentrated; it didn't take her long until she came up with a spell that should work, mumbling the words of said spell a moment later, the demon nearly flinching back when right after the last word, Willow raised her hand and made a short gesture at her, a lightly blue mist spreading from her fingers and covering her seconds later, then vanishing into nothingness.

"There", she then smiled, "this should do, unless he uses some really freaky, complicated spell, which I hope he's not."

"Alright", the demon smirked, "thanks. Let's go and kick his ass then?" Smiling back at her, Willow nodded; the couple took the time for a short, innocent good-luck kiss, then made sure that no one was around to see them before they entered the ruins of the High School, the redhead's heartbeat speeding up as she realized how close they were to meeting that horrible demon once more, a mixture of excitement and fear filling her as she asked herself if this time, things would work out as planned.

* * *

Thanks to the horribly desolate state of the High School, the couple had to move very carefully, with Pat making sure that she'd stay in front of her girlfriend all the time – this way, she could keep her from getting hurt if anything should come down in front of them, and would simultaneously protect her from any surprise attacks their opponent might have up his sleeve.

For her, it was easy to move soundlessly, the way to accomplish quiet walking practically in her blood after centuries of being an assassin; behind her, Willow gave her best to be quiet as well, once more glad that her partner had taught her this, even though she had to admit that it was much harder in the debris-littered remains of the High School than it was on the street or in their apartment. Still, she did fairly well, managing to keep the level of noise she was inevitably making down to a minimum; it irked her a bit that in front of her, her girlfriend moved with creating practically no sound at all, then she shrugged it off and forced herself to concentrate again, only to flinch when her foot stubbed a small piece of mortar and making it bounce over the ground, with quite the audible noise.

"Dammit", she whispered, managing to keep her voice down in the last second; Pat turned around to look at her, whispering as well when she answered and telling her that it was okay.

"If he's in the cellar, he probably didn't hear it", she then added, "it wasn't that loud, and—" She saw the redhead's eyes widen and reacted with stunning speed, turning around within the blink of an eye, just in time to see the brightly burning ball of fire rush towards her. She still had time to wonder why he'd bother to do that, seeing that she was as immune to fire as he was; then, it hit her in the chest, the flames briefly flickering and spreading before they vanished, leaving not the tiniest trace behind.

"What a pity", the redheaded man smirked, showing his buck-toothed smile once more, "I was hoping you'd react without realizing that it was fire and that you'd duck."

"Too bad that didn't work out, huh", Pat gave back, raising her axe; behind her, Willow started mumbling the spell to slow the other demon down, the black haired woman forced to hold back a smirk when she realized that the witch was keeping her voice as low as possible on purpose, so that their opponent wouldn't hear her and wouldn't realize what she was doing until it'd be too late.

"I can't say that I'm surprised you're here, even though I'm not all too happy about it", the man now went on, still smirking, "I guess this is some sort of last stand now, huh? Can't you just let me get my last guy in peace and then let me move on?"

"No", Pat gave back at once, not believing his nerve and the audacity he showed by asking her this, "because you won't stop killing. It is my job though to stop creatures like you, so…"

"It's the Slayer's job, technically", the demon reminded her, "but since you're a traitor and acting as that pesky blonde's replacement while she's down, I guess I can accept that opinion. I'll still have to kill you, but you'll die knowing that I understand you."

"We'll see who'll be the one to die now", Pat confidently gave back, raising the axe slightly; in response, the guy just smirked – before he charged forward with a loud growl, bringing his fists up, his growling drowning out the final words of Willow's spell, the redhead once more holding her breath as she stepped back and waited to see if the spell had worked, her mind racing as she already tried to figure out what she would do in case it didn't slow the man down enough to make it easier for her girlfriend to take him down.


	18. Chapter 18

Author's Note: And yet another story comes to an end :) I hope you enjoyed it – the next one will be posted here on Monday, and might be a bit special, compared to the ones I posted before. Until then, have fun and thank you for reading :)

* * *

Even though the spell clearly had done its job and the demon wasn't as fast as he had been during the first two fights, he still was much quicker than Pat would have liked; at least, she this time managed to duck his first few blows until she had to take one, holding back a groan when his fist hit one of the re-opened cuts with painful aim, fresh droplets of blood falling to the ground a few seconds later.

Just like he had during the first two battles, he tried to follow the punch with a kick; this time though, Pat had seen it coming and easily cross-blocked his leg, then surprised him by grabbing it and jerking it upwards, smirking when he ended up falling to the ground, landing on his butt with a painful crash.

"I'm impressed", he snarled while he came to his feet again, "clearly, you're capable of learning."

"I didn't get to be two hundred and forty one because I'm dumb, you know", Pat gave back, ducking another blow and returning one, a satisfied smirk on her face when her fist connected with his tummy and the punch sent him a few steps back; he growled even louder in reply, clearly not liking the way this fight was going.

"I see what is going on", he then brought out between grit teeth, barely managing to avoid the next blow, the black haired woman's fist smashing into the wall instead and taking out a big chunk of plaster, Willow wincing behind her at the sight even though she knew it didn't really hurt her partner, "your little witch here put some sort of spell on me, is that it? That's some dirty fighting, you know!"

"Says the one who hits people over the head from behind with empty bottles", Pat shot back, taking a step back just in time to avoid the fist he had swung at her face, a low grunt escaping her when another one immediately followed and this time connected.

Then, she seemingly remembered that she had brought an axe along and changed her tactic to using that; the sharp blade flashed as she swung the weapon at the demon, growling lowly when he ducked with annoying speed and the axe hit the wall instead of him, the blade getting buried deep in the concrete. Before she could pull it out again, her opponent had taken the chance she foolishly had given him and tackled her, her grip on the axe slipping as she fell; the back of her head connected hard with the ground, and she couldn't hold back a low groan, hearing Willow cry out behind her when the man grabbed a fistful of her hair and used that grip to slam her head against the ground once more with all the strength he could bring up.

With stars dancing in front of her eyes, Pat just had a second to wonder what he was going to do now when his weight suddenly vanished from her; then, she heard him speak, her heartbeat speeding up at his words, clearly directed at her girlfriend. "I wonder if that spell will still work when I kill you. What do you think?"

Giving her best to fight down the darkness that wanted to engulf her, the demon rolled over, then came to her feet after a few moments of struggling, just in time to see how her opponent tackled Willow, the spell she threw at him clearly not enough to stop him; they both stumbled a few steps back, then the redhead lost her balance and fell, landing on one of the less stable areas, the ground breaking away beneath her, a curse escaping Pat when her girlfriend and the man vanished through the hole and fell into the cellar beneath.

* * *

The fall had nearly knocked her out, but somehow, Willow had managed to stay conscious; shaking off the feeling of dizziness, she came to her feet, looking around as she tried to figure out where the man who had attacked her had gone. It dismayed her that he had been able to get away and go into hiding so quickly after he had made her fall down to that dark and dirty cellar; turning this way and that, she tried to spot him, straining her ears to figure out if he was going to attack her from behind.

"Willow!" she heard Pat call out to her from the ground floor, her head appearing over the hole she had created when she had fallen down here, "are you alright?"

"I'm fine", the witch gave back, still looking left and right as she tried to spot the other demon, "but he's gone, can you come down here? I don't like this."

"I'll be right there", Pat reassured her, making her nod; before the black haired woman could join her in the cellar though, the fist suddenly came flying at her, hitting her straight in the jaw and sending her to the ground.

Groaning, she rolled over, trying to come to her feet; before she could do so though, he kicked her low in the back and sent her flat on her stomach again, chuckling to himself when she couldn't help herself, but just had to cry out in pain. Another startled cry escaped her when he grabbed her and flipped her around, then took a firm hold of her collar and jerked her upwards, pulling back his free hand and clenching it into a tight fist, his eyes glowing brightly as he spoke up, his voice dripping with scorn. "Now, let's see about how well that spell will work once I bashed your face in…"

His smirk widened slightly, then he brought his fist down, the redhead squeezing her eyes shut as she waited for the pain; instead, a muted fleshy sound came, and when she slowly opened her eyes again, a gasp escaped her when she saw that Pat had caught the man's fist right in front of her nose, his fingers caught in the strong grip, his face now contorted with anger.

"I thought I knocked you out", he snarled, jerking his fist out of her grip – before his body started to change, his hair growing and spreading, making both Willow and Pat simultaneously realize that he was demoning out, prompting the taller woman to tell Willow to hide somewhere before she did the same, growling lowly as her body started to change, as well.

Since she still found herself unable to get up thanks to the pain in her back, Willow crawled backwards on hands and feet, glad that neither her girlfriend, nor her opponent were paying much attention on her, knowing how stupid she had to look; she moved away from the two demons and close to one of the few remaining supporting beams, hiding behind it as much as she could, but not able to keep herself from peeking to see how the fight was going. Thanks to the darkness and the fact that now, both her girlfriend and her opponent were burning from head to toe, thus creating flickering, unstable light with their flames, she couldn't see much; she could make out which of the two demons was her girlfriend, thanks to the different fur colour, but it was hard to tell who was landing more hits and who was having the upper hand.

The flickering flames and the bit of light they provided also made it impossible for her to help with some spells, much to her dismay; before she could come up with a solution for this problem though, the taller male demon got a good grip on her girlfriend and used that to fling her away from himself, a cloud of dust rising from the ground when she landed not far from the witch's hiding place.

"Get out of here", she took the time to tell the redhead, the low, growling sound of her voice sending a shiver up and down Willow's spine, despite the fact that this wasn't the best time for such thoughts and feelings; forcing herself to shrug them off, she nodded and came to her feet while Pat tackled the other demon again, the sound of their fighting and their growls filling the cellar once more moments later.

To Willow's relief, the fight kept the male demon distracted from trying to harm her again, making it easy for her to hurry towards the next stairwell, knowing that she'd never be able to climb up to the ground floor through the hole during which she had fallen down here in the first place; the stairs were quite damaged and looked as if they'd fall down any moment, but since this was the only way she could use to get out of the cellar, she had to take the risk. Holding her breath, she made her way up the stairs as fast as she dared, flinching each time she could feel them tremble beneath her feet; somehow, she made it back to the ground floor though, looking a bit lost for a moment once she had arrived there – before she spotted the hole in the floor not far from where she had emerged, quickly making her way to it and peering down, dismay filling her again when she couldn't really see anything, but only heard the sounds of fighting.

Nervously, she shifted on the ground, squinting slightly as she tried to spot anything; the only thing she could see though were the dancing flames which were burning all over the bodies of both demons, accompanied by growls and sounds of fists and feet meeting flesh, along with some rather unpleasant chomping and tearing noises, making her wonder – with a slight queasy feeling – if they were not just hitting each other, but also biting.

That thought briefly made her flash back to the dreadful moment when Oz and Veruca had been at each other's throat, both of them in their werewolf form; at least this time though, if her partner would be the one to survive again, she was in no danger of being eaten, she thought to herself as she kept looking down, even though she still couldn't see much.

After several more minutes, the growling of one of the demons changed to a high-pitched whimpering, again reminding her of the fight between Oz and Veruca; her heart jumped in her chest as she tried to remember if she ever had heard Pat make such a sound and what it could mean, then the cellar beneath her fell silent, the flickering of the flames down there decreasing, then vanishing, prompting her heartbeat to speed up even further as she realized that the battle was over.

Holding her breath, she stared down into the hole, hoping and praying that it had been her girlfriend who'd won the fight; moments later, a sigh of relief escaped her as she spotted the taller woman through the hole, her excitement and relief clearly showing through her voice when she called out to her. "Pat! Are you okay?"

"Just a bit banged up", the demon called back, looking up at her with a little smirk, "can't say that about him."

"Good riddance", Willow smiled, then moved back a bit from the hole when she saw her girlfriend take a few steps back and figured out what she wanted to do; moments later, the demon ran up to the hole, then jumped, managing to grip the edge, her muscles bulging when she pulled herself up and joined her partner on the ground floor.

"Indeed", she then agreed, finding her cigarettes and lighting one of them up while Willow looked at her critically, trying to figure out what she had meant with "a bit banged up"; it seemed that she hadn't downplayed it though, since the few cuts and bruises she could see looked mostly harmless, figuring that her healing abilities hadn't stopped working too early this time.

"Are you okay?" the demon now asked her, looking at her just as critically, "that hit you took looked quite painful."

"Oh it was", Willow grimaced, something she instantly regretting as it sent waves of pain from her jaw through her face, "but it'll just end up in a bruise, he didn't break anything or something…"

"Good for him, or I'd have him revived just so I can kill him again", Pat muttered, making the witch giggle; after a moment, the black haired woman smirked as well, reaching out with her free hand to grasp her girlfriend's, the two just sitting there for a while and looking at each other afterwards, glad that once more, yet another danger for the inhabitants of Sunnydale had been taken care of.

* * *

"…and then he actually started biting, like some kind of rabid dog", Pat told Buffy and Dawn an hour later, between two huge bites of pizza – as always after demoning out, she'd been awfully hungry by the time they had came back to the Summers house, and the Slayer had hurried to change that by ordering an extra-large pizza for all of them. "That was so lame, and gross, I mean, talk about a mouthful of hair."

"Ew", Dawn agreed, not letting the grossness of the thought stop her from munching down her share of the pizza; next to her, Buffy nodded silent agreement as well, then asked if the fight had been hard, making the demon shrug and take another bite of her food before she replied. "Not anymore after Willow put that slowing-down-spell on him, that was really useful. Thanks, Sweetie."

"You're welcome", the redhead beamed, the taller woman smiling back at her just as widely, prompting Buffy to roll her eyes, a hint of mischief in her voice when she spoke up. "And back you two go to the unbelievable constant sweetness. Tell me, didn't that one real, nasty fight spice things up a bit?"

"No", Willow and Pat answered in perfect unison, prompting the blonde to roll her eyes before she giggled; after a moment, the others joined in, then went back to eating and listening to the colourful rendition Pat gave them of the fight, enjoying the relaxed, peaceful atmosphere, all of them determined to do so as long as it was possible, knowing that in a town like Sunnydale, it surely wouldn't last for long – but also knowing that, no matter what would be thrown at them next, they'd be able to handle it as long as they all stuck together and could rely on each other.

End.


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